Specter & Spectre
by I.S. AWESOME 2014
Summary: Danny and Vlad have been enemies since the reunion and now Vlad went too far. While chasing after Vlad, Danny finds himself in a place with aliens and genocidal robots.
1. Chapter 1

This story has been brought to you by: The Phantom Assassin's Challenge. If your like me, then your probably already reading the story, but I have to say this or else I'll have to change my name. Again.

I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR MASS EFFECT

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"I, Technus shall return!" The ghost yelled as Danny captured him with the Fenton thermos.

"What else is new?" Danny asked. The hybrid took off in the direction of his house, and saw the time as he passed the clock tower. 'I'm gonna be late.' He mentally panicked. His parents told him to be home by five for some family meeting or else he'd be grounded until he turned thirty. And he didn't trust them to have mercy on him, even if tonight was his birthday. Danny landed a few blocks away from his house and transformed back to Danny Fenton. He ran the rest of the distance and crashed through the front door.

"Surprise!" Danny was startled when his family and friends jumped out of hiding spaces in the living room, which was littered with banners and streamers, the ceiling was almost completely covered with balloons. Normally a 16th birthday would be too old to throw a surprise party, but between school, ghost fighting, and making sure no one connected Danny's two forms made him long and appreciate the simplicity that came pre-phantom. He noticed that in addition to the people he saw on a regular basis, Dani had taken a space on the couch. The party continued without incident until Maddie Fenton left for business. The party had reached a dull, yet peaceful lull when Dani came to greet him. "Guess what! I discovered a new power."

"Cool, what is it?" He asked thinking it might be one that he has that she has yet to show. Like cryokinesis. She was about to answer when their ghost senses went off in perfect unison.

"I have fudge!" Jack bellowed with a bowl of the dessert as he entered the kitchen.

"Does this smell weird?" Tucker asked, shoving his hat into Jack's face, giving the two hybrids the chance to run off and transform. They flew through the ceiling.

"So, who's butt do you think we'll kick this time?" Dani asked once they were floating over the roof. "My money's on the box ghost."

"I'm betting Skulker. It's been a while since he's tried to capture me."

"I'm afraid both of you are wrong." Vlad said, revealing himself to the younger half ghosts.

"Get the others!" Danny instructed, rocketing at his nemesis. Vlad backhanded Danny, right into a duplicate. The duplicate grabbed Danny's legs and sent electricity coursing through Danny's body. He ended the current when the white rings formed at Danny's hip.

"It wouldn't do for you to pass out and miss this." Through bleary eyes, Danny saw the entire building being swarmed by ghosts. Danny, adrenaline now flowing through him, blasted Vlad in the stomach and dive bombed to his home. A invisible field shocked Danny before he could come to the rescue of his family. Not caring for his secret identity, the hybrid transformed to fall pass the ghost shield. He wasn't expecting the ectoplasmic blast in his side and had just barely managed to transform before landing hard on the pavement. Vlad lowered until he was floating in front of Phantom.

"Send young Danielle for your friends while you try holding me off. You are way too predictable."

"What do you want?" Danny got to his feet, charging his hands with ecto energy.

"Hmm, I thought we knew each other by this point. But if I must explain, than of course I want to kill your idiot Father." Danny started sending blast after blast at Plasmius. Each shot was dispersed as it hit the purple shield Vlad was moving with no visible effort. Danny focused on the areas of space surrounding Vlad. Three rings of light surrounded Vlad, earning a dry laugh from the older hybrid. The Phantom duplicates focused all available energy through their hands. Vlad curled up and the area was filled a mixture of green and purple light, finally exploding and sending the Dannys to the ground. White rings traveled down three of their spines and left only one Danny Phantom wobbly standing. Vlad brought his hand up to his mouth and said, "How's the weapon coming?" Danny's eyes widened at what her heard.

"The weapon will fire in one minute." A voice Danny recognized as one of the ghost vultures said over the wrist mounted speakers.

"I'd recommend we get away now." Another one said. With all the ghosts attacking within the ghost shield, it was impossible they'd notice the weapon, meaning it was up him. But Danny knew Vlad wouldn't let him become human long enough to get through the ghost field, leaving him with only one choice. Danny floated off the ground and pulled air into his being. He released his most powerful attack; the ghostly wail. Danny fell to his knees, too tired to maintain his ghost form after the attack and felt a smile as the field came down. The smile disappeared when the black rings appeared around Vlad, and instead of transforming him into Masters, made him disappear. His attention was pulled away when a bright light engulfed the only home he'd ever known. Once it was gone, all that remained was an empty lot. Danny fell to his knees, telling himself to wake up from this horrible dream.

"Oh Irony. In an attempt to rescue Jack Fenton, you used your most powerful attack and did my job for me." Vlad gloated, except three words were repeating in his mind. 'Its my fault.'

"Everything went as planned." One of the vultures said.

"It was difficult, but we even made sure that woman you said to make sure was there had remained in range." The second one said.

"You What?!" Vlad yelled, eyes flashing red.

"Y-you told us to make sure she was in range before the bomb detonated."

"I said make sure she WASN'T in range! You killed the love of my life!" The anger in Vlad's voice at losing an old flame had made it past the Danny's guilt and he forced himself through the transformation he had been doing for years.

"You are upset because you accidentally killed a woman who had no interest in you when you killed everyone I ever cared for!" The air around them was dropping ten degrees every second. The vultures could sense they were in danger and flew away at Mach speeds. Vlad sent a punch at Danny, which was stopped by Phantom's telekinesis. Plasmius knew he had bitten off more than he could chew and tried to break away. The older ghost knew he needed to get away and blasted ecto energy at Danny. The blast had blinded Danny just long enough for Vlad to get away. Danny flew to Vlad's mansion in Amity, and waited to attack. After a few hours, Phantom realized the older halfa must have already left. He stole Vlad's money and bought a place for him to live. The next day he flew to Clockwork's tower and begged the time ghost to undo what happened. But instead of helping, Clockwork informed him that he wasn't allowed to interfere unless Danny caused severe damage to the time line.

'Maybe if I became–No! I promised them I'd never be like him!' Danny pounded his head against the wall to force the thoughts away.

-.-.-.-.-. Five Years Later .-.-.-.-.-

"Mr. Fenton, I have Mr. Moriarty on line one." Star, Danny's assistant, called from the other room

"Got it." Danny dropped the blueprints on ghost hunting equipment on the desk. Using Vlad's money, Danny formed Fenton industries to equip the world with protection from ghosts while using the money to have Mr. Moriarty search for Vlad. Though Danny knew the call was most likely just another disappointment, the hybrid found himself hoping that he finally found the man that ruined his life. Unfortunately, his luck was holding up and it was a failed project.

"Mr. Fenton, I have a call from a Mr. Mahorop."

"Put him on," Danny picked up the phone then said, "you can go home now." She was confused, but didn't argue a day-off. Mahorop was the code name Danny gave Amorpho should any one of Danny's ghost allies see Vlad floating around the ghost zone. And unlike Moriarty, Amorpho wouldn't call with useless updates. Danny wasn't disappointed when Amorpho sent him coordinates to an area in the zone. Danny closed the door and yelled, "I'm Going Ghost!" He phased through the wall to the hidden training area and flew through the ghost portal he created when first starting the company. Danny flew through the zone. After some searching, he finally found the one person he has been searching for years. "Plasmius!" Danny yelled. Vlad flew away. The younger hybrid was having difficulty keeping up as Plasmius weaved through the celestial bodies floating through the zone. Danny turned, and saw a portal coming up. Phantom was unable to stop before flying through a portal. He crashed on a landmass and looked around. Vlad was nowhere in sight.

"Way to go, Phantom." He said aloud.

"Freeze!" A voice said behind Danny.

"You don–" The hybrid paused when he saw someone pointing a strange gun at him, but what really surprised him was the weapon was being wielded by a four-eyed creature with mucus-like skin. 'Where did that portal drop me?'

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Hope you enjoyed the first installment of Specter &amp; Spectre.


	2. Chapter 2

I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR MASS EFFECT

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Danny watched as he was surrounded by five strange beings with mucus-like skin and had four eyes each. They all had strange weapons and wore blue armor with white dots surrounded by white circles. The hybrid would have thought them ghosts if it weren't for one thing; his ghost sense failed to go off. He knew that wherever and whenever he was thrown definitely wasn't the ghost zone, meaning if he wanted to, he could simply phase through the ground and away from the things he could only describe as alien. But Danny knew he couldn't do that for two main reasons; one, he didn't know if they were expecting ghosts and he had already learned to NEVER underestimate an opponent. And two, if he left them, he would have to find a different way to find information. Phantom let them lead him down a long hallway then through a door that revealed a stadium-like building. As they approached, Danny saw images of blue strippers with tentacles for hair dancing on the front. "Guys, if you wanted more customers, than holding them at gunpoint is not a sound business plan."

"Shut up and move." One of the alien's pushed his gun into Danny's back. That one act was enough to force the hybrid's instincts to take over. Danny spun around to grab the weapon from the alien that poked him, then swung him and the weapon until releasing both into two different aliens. Phantom followed up with a ghost ray to the face of the alien on the furthermost right. By the time Danny had his powers charged up for another blast, his rational mind took back over and he saw where he was. He withdrew his hand and let the creatures get back to their feet.

"Uh..First show's on me." Danny offered, gloved hands sheepishly rising in the air in surrender. The aliens said nothing in response, only created more distance between them and him and kept weapons steady on his form. 'Way to go, idiot. Now they see you as a threat.' From there, the only sound was the growing volume of music coming from the club. The hybrid had to control the urge to not laugh at the incredulous expressions the patrons wore as they passed through the club. As they were walking, Danny saw several different looking life-forms. Along with the four-eyes, and blue women, the building was also filled with bug-like creatures who's skin looked remarkably like bones. He probably would have noticed the humans, if the gunmen didn't cock their weapons every time he moved his head away from their intended path. They lead him past two flights of stairs to a couch where a blue woman was sitting. Unlike all the other blue women Phantom had seen so far, this one was wearing actual clothes as compared to the stripper garb.

"I must admit, you did something not many can. You surprised me." The blue woman said, playing a holographic video of Danny quickly defeating the gunmen before they could react, only to let himself be captured.

"My pleasure to entertain." Danny said with a mock bow, mostly to keep them off balance. The four-eyed aliens shared looks with each other, ones that obviously said something around the lines of, 'This guy must have a Death Wish.' Meanwhile the female alien just wore a dark smile.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" She asked.

"The only woman here that isn't a stripper?"

"I'm Aria." She told him. Danny knew that probably meant something, but he had to find out what it meant exactly.

"Aria? Aria? Hmm...wait! Now I remember you. You were the one who– Ah, who I'm kidding? Do you own this place?"

"Do I own Omega?" The blue woman turned to stare at the floor from where her perch sat all the way to the front door that Danny entered through. "I AM OMEGA." She signaled one of her henchmen forward. Danny stepped back with eyes widened when a orange holographic gauntlet appeared over the four-eyed alien's wrist, earning a few snickers from the four-eyed aliens and even an amused smile from Aria. "Better question. Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm a species known as human."

Aria laughed in a manner that made the gunmen tense their hold on the weapons and forced Danny to fight the urge to ready a ghost ray. "Since you are one of the few people to surprise me, I'll make you a deal not many get. If you go take care of a certain inconvenience I've been having, I'll let you live."

"And what exactly, is this 'inconvenience'?" Danny asked, not liking nor trusting the tone she used to describe it.

"Take him directly to the drop point." She directed the four-eyed aliens. They lead him to a blue car with another four-eyed alien, also wearing a blue and white suit. Waiting outside the car were three others. There was a dinosaur-like creature and a lizard creature with buggy eyes. Standing between them was a human man in black armor with red streaks traveling up his arms. A N7 stamped on his chest.

"This kid has been assigned to go with you to deal with Archangel." The escorting alien said to the other four-eyed alien.

"Where's his armor? His weapons?" The four-eyed pilot asked.

"Aria sent him."

The eyes of all, save the ghost and escorting alien, widened after hearing the woman's name. "Waiting for you, kid." With no other choice, Danny took the seat. The human turned his attention to the hybrid.

"Why would Aria send someone like you to fight Archangel?"

"If I had to guess, she has no sense of humor." Danny said, "She was also kinda vague. Who's Archangel? And why would she want people after him?"

"Archangel is a vigilante that has been getting in the way of the mercenaries profits." He already knew the Aria chick was bad, but he now knew who was the good guy. And what he had to do. No matter what, Archangel had to be saved. The rest of the trip was pretty quiet, leaving Danny no closer to figuring out where the portal had thrown him. But then again, how does one ask about things others think of as natural?

Before long, the group landed and the lizard, human, dinosaur team had separated from Danny. A part of Phantom wanted to go ahead and use his powers to protect the person from the mercenaries, but he couldn't without exposing himself to the pilot, who appears to have been assigned to make sure he didn't try to run. So he had to use the oldest excuse in his arsenal. "Mind leaving me alone? I seriously have to use the restroom." Danny said, glad he finally got the chance to move. Phantom flew out of the restroom and landed right behind the 'vigilante'.

"You're either Archangel or the unluckiest person I've ever met." Startled by the sudden voice coming from behind him, Archangel rounded to aim his sniper rifle at the ghost teen. By the time the gun fired, Danny had managed to gain the intangible &amp; invisible combo, making the bullet pass through air and crack the wall.

"Show yourself." Archangel yelled, scanning for the mysterious arrival.

"Put the gun down first."

"Why don't you show yourself first?" Deciding that he had nothing to lose, Danny let himself become visible. But he knew better than to release his intangibility or revealing his flight to Archangel. "How did you get past all my defenses?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me." Phantom was about to spout some lie about how he was air dropped or something to that effect, but stopped when he saw the mercenaries running across the bridge.

"How about we fight mercenaries now and fight each other later." Danny allowed Archangel to dispatch the mercenaries coming from across the bridge while he invisibly phased through the floor. He landed on the ground and blasted a solitary merc in the face with a weakened ghost ray, instantly knocking him out.

"They're working with Archangel!" Someone yelled. 'How did they see me?' He thought, but than saw the remaining mercenaries point their weapons at the group he rode with. Figuring since Aria and her guards weren't too surprised by his ecto energy, Danny charged his hands and blasted at every mercenary in sight, releasing his invisibility as he did. More were coming from the bridge, too many for Archangel to take on all by himself. In response, Phantom pooled his ectoplasm into his center and pushed it to the surface, resulting in a powerful green wave knocking back all the mercenaries back to the starting point, along with the crates some had been using as cover. Most of the mercenaries were knocked out, but some of them were able to rush to the safety of the far side of the bridge. With no more enemies coming, the halfa phased back to the floor with Archangel. Danny watched as the team he rode with walked through the now unopened door.

"Archangel?" The human asked, obviously the leader of the three. Instead of turning around, the vigilante fired a shot at mercenary that poked his head over the barricade. He then turned to face the the three and removed his helmet, revealing a bony alien with a high-tech targeting eye piece.

"Shepard." He sat down, weapon lowered. "I thought you were dead."

"Garrus? What are you doing here?"

"Just keeping my skills sharp with some target practice."

"OK, will someone please explain what's going on?" Danny revealed himself. All guns were quickly aimed at him, but the human lowered his weapon once he recognized the person.

"You're that kid that blasted away the mercs." The human lowered his gun, which in turn, made the aliens lower theirs.

"First off, I'm 20 years old i.e. Not a kid. Second, What the heck is going on? I thought you were here to kill him."

"We're actually here to recruit him. And after seeing you, I think you would make a good addition to the team."

"A team up? For what?"

"We're fighting the Collectors." The human, Shepard, answered.

"Collectors?"

"They have been abducting human colonies, and they may be working with the Reapers."

Collectors? Reapers? It's been close to two hours and Danny was even more confused then when he first left the ghost zone. The word 'abductions' automatically cemented Danny's assistance, but he couldn't waste his chance to get some answers. "I'm in. On one condition."

"What's that?"

"You answer ALL my questions."

"Agreed."

"There won't be any deals if we don't figure a way out of here. The bridge funnels them, and it would do the same for us." Garrus announced, his scope fixed on the bridge. Suddenly, he had an idea and turned back to the ghost. "You never did answer my question. How did you get in?"

"I..uh...found a small hole in the basement. Too small for any of you." Shepard looked at the bug-eyed lizard, who pulled up a gauntlet exactly like the one Danny had seen while talking to Aria and her thugs.

"I'll give you another chance to answer the question. Either tell the truth or a more convincing lie." Shepard turned back to the hybrid.

"I scaled the wall while invisible." Danny said, adding in what he hoped was an innocent smile. Shepard turned back to the gauntlet user. The creature was pressing buttons wildly, zooming in on the heart of a holographic form that Danny assumed was supposed to be him. "Okay, you got me. I'm a ghost."

"Ghost? As in not living anymore?" Garrus asked.

"Unless you know of a second definition."

"Impossible. A malfunction? No, just calibrated. Are you creating interference? No, no other signs of disturbance. Biotics masking—?" The creature rattled off at speeds Danny was having trouble keeping up with.

"Whoa, whoa. Dude, lay off the caffeine." Danny stopped the alien.

"So you could get all of us out of here?" Shepard asked.

"I can only carry two at a time." That was a lie. Danny had been able to create duplicates of himself for close to three years and, at last count, could make up to 20 or 30 copies. But until he knew who to trust, Danny didn't want to volunteer away too many of his powers. Besides, Garrus has defended himself against the mercenaries long enough for the criminals to unite, a very difficult feat. It's not like he would suddenly be overwhelmed and killed before Danny could return.

"Take Mordin and Grunt. I'll stay back to help Garrus."

Danny chuckled and turned to the fast-talking alien. "Your name's Grunt?"

"You have a problem with MY name?" The dinosaur made an intimidating step to the ghost. Or at least it would have been to someone who hadn't fought and defeated enemies that could eat the Jurassic alien for breakfast. Still, it'd be better to not let them know he's not scared right off the bat.

"Uh, let's get going." Danny grabbed both of their arms and jumped up to pull all three of them through the concrete. He flew them away until he was sure they could escape incase the mercenaries saw them. Once they landed, Grunt held his arms in front of his face and Mordin's eyes somehow widened further than they had already.

"How?" Mordin asked. Before Danny could reiterate his being a ghost, Mordin changed his focus to the gauntlet and started running off possibilities, followed shortly by why those reasons couldn't be it. Deciding that it would be pointless to try convince the alien that ghosts were real, Danny became invisible again to hide his flight back to the warehouse.

"I would have thought invisibility and intangibility would make things go quicker." Garrus said.

"You ever try carrying a dinosaur and a human lizard while two miles underground? Not easy." Danny joked. They were all frozen when they heard a mechanical sound approaching.

"Die Archangel!" A pilot said through intercoms positioned on the exterior, guns aimed through the window. Acting off instinct, Danny threw up his arms to project a force field to protect the remaining group from weapon fire. Bullets burst into the room, only to bounce off the green wall. The hybrid was caught off guard when the pilot launched a missile, sending him against the wall, while also scattering shrapnel. Garrus went down and Shepard approached the downed alien. Danny saw the trouble the two were in and flew through the cockpit, instantly taking over the four-eyed pilot. Now in control of the craft, Danny flew them over an abandoned looking warehouse.

"This thing went out of control and I barely escaped." Danny said through the alien's mouth, before getting an idea. "Archangel's dead." He added before flying them both to view the vehicle crash. He got back to the warehouse in enough time to see Shepard and Garrus getting in a small blue flying car. It took off before Danny could become visible. Deciding to get a better view of where the team was stationed, the ghost followed. Once he saw the small blue flying car board with a large jet of some kind, Danny phased through the larger ship's wall. He stayed invisible until he found Shepard in an elevator. "Is Garrus alright?" The hybrid asked as he let himself become visible.

"He's in the infirmary." Shepard revealed.

"I'm sorry." Danny said, silently wondering how he could have done better.

"Don't worry, Garrus is one tough son of a gun. He'll get up, ready to get back into the field." Danny couldn't be sure, but he thought he could hear some uncertainty in his voice. Before the white-haired man could respond, Shepard changed the subject. "I have some issues to overlook, but come around and I'll answer those questions. In the mean time, feel free to explore the Normandy." The commander said before exiting the elevator on a large room with a orange hologram of the vessel at the center of it. Deciding to accept the offer, Danny phased through the floor and invisibly explored the ship. Eventually rounding to the floor Shepard had stopped on. He found himself in a room with a blue holographic ball and a man sitting in front of some controls. He was about to leave, when he saw they were leaving the dock where the structure was parked. He pushed forward until they were in the night sky. Danny noticed the sky was different than usual, and it only took a few seconds for the hero to realize why.

"Are we in space?" Danny almost yelled, not bothering to hide his excitement. His face pressed against the windshield as he released his invisibility.

"Gah-" the pilot jumped in his chair. After a few seconds, the pilot got over the shock and turned to the holographic image of a sphere, where he said, "Tell the commander I found Phantom."

"Shepard would like to talk to you in the briefing room." A electronic, female voice answered. Seeing the clueless expression on the ghost's face, the pilot explained how to get there. Seeing Danny fly through the wall straight to the designated room, Joker turned to EDI to say, "Bet that saves him a lot of time."

"Wanted to see me?" Danny answered, poking his head from the ceiling. Once he did, he saw Shepard with a red haired woman, Garrus, now featuring a scar that made people want to back off, and most notably, Danny took notice of a black haired woman in a form fitting catsuit.

"You aren't the only one with questions." The black haired woman answered in an English accent.

"Name: Phantom comma Danny. Rank: Superhero. Age: Depends on how you count it." The hybrid answered, purposely to mess with them. The woman's mouth took on a scowl while both Garrus and the red head were hiding their smiles. But Shepard openly laughed at the expression the woman wore.

"You must excuse Miranda. I understand that you want answers, but there are also questions I must ask. First, what're you capable of doing?"

"Oh, so now the standard ghost powers aren't good enough?" The commander dropped the smile.

"There are lives at risk. And full knowledge on what you can do could help save many lives."

"You already saw the standard ghost powers and the ghost ray when recruiting archangel here." Danny jerked his head at the alien to illustrate the base he meant, "But there's also possession aka overshadowing and ice powers." The young hero made sure not to talk about the ghostly wail or his ability to shift between alive and dead.

"You mean like Shepard's cryo ammo?" Miranda asked.

"Not unless he can do this." Danny responded, closing then opening his hands to reveal an ice crystal, which he gave to Miranda. Her eyes widened at seeing the crystal, but she was quick to bring herself back to reality.

"Earlier you identified yourself as a superhero. Why?" The red head asked.

"Because 'person with superpowers who fights super powered villains on a regular basis' takes too long to say, and doesn't look as good on a coffee mug."

"You fight super villains? I bet that means you have some interesting stories." Garrus said.

"You have no idea." The session of question the ghost continued. As the red head, Kelly Chambers as he learned, asked questions, Danny found he recognized the analytical questions were similar to the ones Jazz practiced on him during her Psychology course. He didn't want them to adjust to someone who knew of the science and let them think he was answering without knowing what Chambers was doing.

He wasn't surprised to learn he had traveled over a hundred years, but did find out the names of the species he already met, heard some stories from the original crew's hunt for Saren, and some of the species he has yet to run into. 'An entire woman species? Races of sentient robots? And technological implants? Sounds like Tucker's dreamworld.' The hero thought, the anger of losing everyone reminding him why he was in the ghost zone in the first place. He lost track of Vlad and now he was able to help people, both of which ensured he was stuck onboard for sometime. Phantom made up a lie about ghosts needing places to manifest to cross between the human and ghost realms. The ship's artificial intelligence, EDI, had recommended the port observation deck after seeing his reaction to being in space. The hero flew directly there and was told to rest up for the next mission. After landing in his new room, Danny wasted no time in creating an ice wall to separate him from anyone who might be looking.


	3. Chapter 3

I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR MASS EFFECT

Miranda Lawson didn't know what to make of Commander Shepard's decision to add the 'ghost' to the squad. With the powers he claimed were standard for all ghosts, he could easily do massive damage to his enemies. But what added apprehension was that there was a possibility of him turning his powers on Cerberus if she wasn't careful. And that would pertain if she knew more about him, but it was made worse as Yeoman Chambers had clarified she couldn't tell how Phantom's death had effected him.

That suspicion was what she was reporting to the Illusive Man, along with clips of the ghost using some of his powers, courtesy of the cameras scattered around the ship. She had been able to get footage of the standard abilities and his cryokinesis easily enough, but couldn't get any footage of the 'ghost ray' or the 'possession' ability. 'Might be best to arrange a formal demonstration.' Lawson thought. But something caught her attention while scanning the outside of the ice shield the newest member had crafted on the first day. Looking closer, she saw a dim light illuminate the room for a few seconds before dissipating. She tried to access other cameras in the room, only to find the feed disabled. But what she did find was the light repeated itself both anytime before he left the room and late at night. Deciding to focus on it later, Miranda sent the report, with her suspicion of Phantom hiding additional abilities, to the head of Cerberus. It only took a few minutes for The Illusive Man to send a response email.

"Don't risk losing him, he could be a great assistance in defeating the Collectors. But do attempt to align him with us. His abilities, if distilled, could launch humanity forward Eons." The email read.

'Easier said than done.' The woman thought to herself. She may not have spent much time with the newest member of the squad, but it was obvious he had a stubborn streak, meaning he would refuse to acknowledge logic and any positive light she'd shed on the organization would be viewed as propaganda. She recalled him talking about searching for a ghost referred to only as Plasmius. He might be more inclined to listen to her position if Cerberus helped locate this other ghost. But hunting a ghost was completely different than hunting a living being.

"Miranda," Shepard called over the intercom, "You're coming with us to retrieve Jack."

"On my way." She responded, quickly walking to the elevator. When the lift let out on the CIC, she saw Shepard standing next to Phantom, who was laying back in the air as if he was in a lounge chair only he could see. But once he saw the Cerberus operative, the ghost narrowed his eyes. Miranda did note some improvement, however, as his eyes didn't start glowing like a quarian's. As it turns out, Phantom had learned of Cerberus' more..unsavory side from Vakarian. Miranda had tried to tell their intention of protecting and advancing humanity, but anytime she tried, the ghost just disappeared, literally.

"What's she doing here?" Phantom crossed his arms and floated upright.

"We may need a powerful biotic incase Jack tries to escape while we're leaving."

"Then why do you need me on this mission?"

"You yourself told us how much experience you have dealing with super powered beings. If worst comes to worst, I know I can count on you to keep us alive." After his recruitment, Phantom had begun speaking of his adventures. And if there was even a grain of truth in any of his stories, then it reinforced Miranda's knowledge that he was a very dangerous individual.

Releasing a sigh, Phantom reluctantly agreed. 'I can't believe I ended up working with the bad guys.' Danny thought as he awaited their docking to the prisoner station known as Purgatory. After the Q&amp;A, Danny had run into Garrus, who then told him of what kind of things the group was capable of. The things he were told reminded the hero of a competent Guys in White, only against aliens instead of ghosts. If Shepard wasn't there to talk some sense into him, then Danny would have tried to give Miranda an idea of what he thought about xenophobic groups.

"Maybe you shouldn't use any of your powers unless needed." The commander brought Danny back to reality. The hybrid realized he was referring to Danny's being upright despite neither leg touching the ground. He landed in time for the hissing of the room to stop. Shepard lead the way, with Miranda following behind and Danny falling after them. The hybrid couldn't stop himself from watching the way Miranda's hips swayed as she moved. 'Watch it, Fenton! She's part of a terrorist organization.' Danny shook his head to clear his mind of the thoughts, not noticing the small smile Lawson had at seeing Phantoms reaction to her body.

"What are you waiting for?" Miranda turned, crossing her arms to push her chest out. Danny put his arm to study the omni-tool that Shepard gave him to keep in touch during missions. 'He blushes green?' She noted.

"Give me a break. Remember, technology wasn't anything like this in my time. Just making sure I know how to work it." He said, though it was clear no one believed that was his reason for looking away. But Miranda knew only to tease him so much and Shepard definitely didn't want to continue this conversation.

"You can continue experimenting with the omni-tool after picking up Jack." Shepard said to push the other two forward. Once he said it, the group started walking forward. 'Why is this bothering you? Omega was full of strippers.' But as they moved, Danny remembered that between the pushy guards, the low lights, and the situation, he didn't focus on the girls. The group came to a stop at a door at the end of the hall, where Danny's eyes moved back to the woman. 'Why does she have to be evil.'After walking through the other door, the group saw two turians, both wearing armor that let the hybrid know they were from the same group that led him to meet Aria.

Upon seeing the group, the aliens drew their weapons, making the two humans do the same and Danny prepare a ectoplasmic shield should any shots be fired. "Drop your weapons."

"Yeah. I don't think so." Shepard said.

Before either side could pull their triggers, another turian came from behind the other two. "Let them pass. I think we can handle these three. One of them doesn't even have a gun or any armor." The newest turian said before introducing himself as Warden Kuril and leading them past the other guards. Before leaving, the warden gave them instructions on how to pick up Jack, which he himself admitted was "meanest handful of violence" he had ever seen. They followed the warden's instructions, ending up passing through a couple more doors, finally seeing their goal. Danny got a sense of dread that only increased as they got closer to the door, not that he'd vocalize his concern in fear that saying it would condemn them to the trouble. The door slowly opened to reveal...an empty room.

"Sorry, Commander. You're much more valuable as a prisoner than as a buyer. Put down your weapons and step into the cell." Kuril said over the intercom system.

"Are all the criminals in this time this stupid?" Danny asked.

"No, Kuril is a special breed of idiot." Miranda replied.

"Phantom, feel free to use your powers to bottle neck the opposition. But leave us some." Shepard pointed to the door.

Danny jumped into the air and disappeared, but not before saying, "I make no promises." With invisibility in place, Danny intercepted the guards rushing to the room he was just in. The hybrid punched the guard leading the other two. Phantom twisted the guards arm to spin then throw him into the surprised guards following behind. Soon, there were more guards coming from the hallway stretching in front of him. As they approached, Danny threw up a ghost shield to make the bullets bounce away. He pulled his arms back and sent the field plowing them to the end of the hallway. "Oh, come on. Can't you give me a little challenge." Had he stayed closer to the room he had been in, he would have seen the advancing robot, that is he didn't until he got tackled to the ground. Out of his peripheral vision, Danny was able to see a robotic hound with its paws on his shoulders. "Nice dog." Phantom joked. He was about to phase out from under the creature'a grasp, but a shot rang out before he could, and the canine went down, shortly before exploding.

"You're welcome." Miranda approached. They turned to see more of the dog bots running toward him. Learning his lesson after the last blindsiding, Danny shaped his finger to form two guns and blast the dogs right in their digital eyes and exiting through the backs. Once the mechs were down, more guards came around the edge. The hybrid saw the other two level their guns and quickly projected a field to stop the guards from being killed, then followed up with pushing them away the same way he did earlier. Shepard and Miranda looked at the hero with confusion.

"I'm not a killer." Danny said.

"We can continue this later, but you can't survive if you try to save everyone." Shepard said.

"I think I did pretty well back home."

"We don't have the luxury of sparing everyone. Unlike you, we are able to be killed."

"Fine, I won't stop you guys. But if you expect me to kill anyone, then your dumber than Kuril." With that Danny rushed ahead. He had got there in time to blast the single hostile scientist away from the panel before the other squad members arrived. Miranda studied the terminal then looked at Shepard.

Miranda turned to ask, "How do you handle the cold that you didn't make?"

"I can still feel it, but it doesn't both-" Danny started before realizing what she was suggesting. He quickly phased through both the wall and floor to finally get to where the convict was held. He was only down for a few seconds before Lawson and Shepard's earpieces squawked to life. "Are we sure this is the person we were sent for."

"Yes. Now pull him up." Shepard responded. The room was silent as Phantom flew out from the floor. And as he did, the rest of the ground saw the ghost's hesitation. In his hands, Danny was carrying a head shaved, heavily tattooed, woman. The hybrid was flying closer, oblivious to her shaking off the lingering sedatives. Jack didn't know what was going on, but she had never let things unfold by themselves and wouldn't start now. "Phantom," Shepard called over the earpiece, "Jack's coming to." Danny looked down at her, just in time for his face to be blasted back by the convict's biotics, making him lose his grip on her and sending him against the wall. Jack was falling to the ground, when the mechs designed to keep he under activated. She used pull to levitate one mech to soften her own landing as well as destroying that mech. The robots on either side of her turned to capture, but before they could, Jack sent out shockwaves to both of them. Once they were down, she used her biotics to create a hole in the wall to escape. By the time Danny recovered, Miranda and Shepard were coming through the previously locked door.

"Okay, that was my bad." Danny said before joining the others at the hole where Jack disappeared. The crew went through the hall to find Jack had created a new hallway. When he heard screams coming from ahead, Danny pulled him and his squad forward to a room that was already falling apart, forcing all his attention on flying them to where Jack was so he wouldn't have to see the bodies that had been left in the halls.

"All guards, be on high alert. Jack has escaped, I want her captured alive." Kuril commanded as the crew left the hallway. The hybrid saw the door at the far side of the room and released his teammates to fly through the door at the far side. Danny saw the convict rushing to a ramp that lead to a door. He quickly shot an ice beam at her feet to the metallic ground. Jack saw her feet connected to the ground, and turned around to see the person she woke up to. The tattooed woman started glowing blue and pushed a biotic blast at the hero and the ice that was imprisoning her. But, he was expecting it this time. Danny had already shifted to intangibility and the biotic went straight through him. Jack's eyes widened in surprise when the attack hit the wall instead of her intended target.

"Not so tough when your target knows what to expect?" Danny landed on Jack's right to gloat.

"Phantom!" Miranda called out.

"Don't worry. She won't catch me off-" he was interrupted when she fired at a gun. He followed the weapon fire to see that a heavy robot was advancing on him. Before Danny could phase, the robot slammed its arm into his chest. He only paused for a few seconds after being hit before he flew back to the mech. The robot pulled its arm up to reveal a gun to the ghost. Before a single bullet could leave the chamber, Danny disappeared. The mech scanned the area for the ghost, leaving Shepard &amp; Miranda to handle the guards that were converging on them. The robot had begun turning to the other conflict, but was stopped when there was a tapping on the side of its head. It turned its head to see a glowing green hand aimed at its screen eyes, which blasted a wide, and powerful beam only a millisecond later. Danny turned to see that Jack had escaped, most likely through the door he had stopped her at, seeing how there were no new holes in the wall. The hero was preparing to follow when he saw that another heavy robot was stomping to where Miranda was shooting at guards closing in on her. Shepard was on the other side of the catwalk, unable to get a clear shot of the heavy, even if he wasn't busy with his own enemies. The hybrid flew inside the mech and suddenly, there were green blasts of energy punching holes in its armor. Phantom flew out of the robot's chest and brought his hand to the mechs optics. But instead of blasting another ghost ray, Danny flicked the head unit, sending it toppling over. The green lights had drew the guards attention to what the ghost had done. Many of them had shifted their focus to the ghost while some were sneaking away in the chaos. With their focus on Danny, Shepard and Miranda were able to regroup and pick off some of the guards flooding the hybrid, not that he needed help. Danny purposely used weaker ecto-blasts to send the advancing guards back to allow his team to reach the door. Once they got to the door, Phantom used his cryokinesis to block their movement. The door opened to reveal Kuril standing on a platform, surrounded by some kind of energy field.

"I could've sold you and lived like a king. But you're too much trouble." Kuril said before opening fire on the crew.

"I don't have time for this." Shepard said, after pulling all three of them out of the way. Guards were trickling into the room, Miranda and Shepard opening fire on any that got too close while Danny disappeared and reappeared inside the shield. The hybrid simply crossed his arms, waiting for the alien to recover. When Kuril finally did move the gun, Danny had disappeared again, only this time he appeared behind him.

"Guess who." Danny said, making the warden do a 180. But instead of letting the turian fire, the hybrid became intangible to overshadow Kuril. Now controlling the boss, Danny cleared his throat and in the warden's voice, said, "All guards return to your stations and allow Shepard and crew to advance." The addressed guards looked at the warden with confusion, before holstering their weapons and doing as the warden commanded. As soon as the last guard left, Kuril flew out of the bubble, where he then sprouted a, glowing, gloved hand. The hand turned to his head and tossed the turian against the wall, immediately knocking him out and leaving a ghost where he was standing.

"Too bad we didn't have that trick back on Korlus." Shepard said. They were reminded why they heard an explosion rumble in the distance. "Phantom."

"On it." Was all the hybrid said before phasing through the ground.

-.-.-.-.-

Jack had managed to get away from the guards and the other group, but she was starting to feel the effects of her biotics taking hold. As much as she hated to admit it, she knew she couldn't handle much more fights. Especially if the white-haired kid showed up. The convict leaned against the window viewing out on the docks and found the ship the secondary group most likely came in on. Upon closer inspection, Jack saw a symbol on the hull that caused her anger to replace her fatigue. The ship boasted of being Cerberus. She forced herself to her feet with a roar. She started to take her first steps to the ship of her enemies, but she felt herself sinking. Jack looked down to see her feet falling through the floorboard. Jack didn't understand what was happening, but she knew enough that it wasn't good. She focused on unleashing her biotics to free her feet, but before she could, a gloved hand came from the ground and pulled her glowing arm through the floor. Jack found that she couldn't make any impact on the ground with her trapped hand and switched to her other hand, which was then pulled into the wall.

"Impressive." The woman said approaching. A Cerberus insignia clear on her uniform.

"Actually, that's..disturbing." The man with black hair said.

"Cowards!" Jack yelled. "You know you can't kill me if I was able to move."

"We don't want to kill you." The white-haired kid flew out of the floor. Earlier, Jack noticed the kid wasn't wearing armor like the other two, but instead was clad in what appeared to be a jumpsuit, only now did she notice the strange symbol emblazoned on his chest.

"On the contrary," the man said, holstering his gun and signaling the woman to do the same. "We're here to get you."

"And who the f# * are you?"

"I'm Commander Shepard, we're here to recruit you for a mission against the Collector's."

"I'd rather be spaced than work with you, Cerberus Cheerleader."

The kid chuckled, before turning to his teammates. "Okay, I'm starting to like her."

"We're wasting time. I say we knock her out, or maybe have Phantom do what he did to Kuril."

"I'd like to see you try." Jack said, though she knew they held all the power, especially with whatever trick the white-haired kid, or Phantom as she now knew, was hiding.

"We're not knocking her out." Shepard responded.

"Good choice." Jack said.

"Yeah, Miranda. Do you really want a ticked biotic of her power level to be trusted on the ship while we sleep? Or on missions when there already enough people trying to kill us?"

"Then how do you suggest we do it?"

"If you really want my help, than I want access to Cerberus files. All of them." Jack said.

"Those files are confidential." Miranda turned to Shepard and said, "You can't give her access to them."

"The cheerleader doesn't want to give them up?" Danny said. "I vote we give her the files."

"We will. Phantom, mind getting her out of there?" Danny did as he was asked and pulled her out, but he was smart enough to pull his hands off her as soon as she was out.

-.-.-.-

They soon got to docking bay and were preparing to take off. Danny expressed his belief of Kuril or one of his guards trying to shoot them. It didn't take long for Joker to launch them to a different part of space and Danny phased through the walls to meet the crew. "You made it just in time, Phantom." Shepard said.

"Why? Was Miranda about to give Jack the files?" Danny asked jokingly.

"Actually, I was thinking it would be better if you were the one who gave her the files." Danny froze at what he was hearing.

"Don't take long with those files, kid." Jack said before leaving. The door sliding shut brought the hybrid out of his trance.

"You want me to give her the files?"

"Who better than someone who doesn't have to worry about his life." Miranda said. Danny wanted to argue, but couldn't think of anything that wouldn't expose the secret he had been keeping since he stepped through the portal. So after retrieving the data pads, the ghost flew into the room that Jack had claimed as her own.

"Took you long enough." Jack said.

"Here are your files." Danny set the box full of data pads next to her. She pulled one out and simply started to read through it. "So..what do you hope to find?"

"Names and places. Anyone who screwed with me will pay."

"And when they have?"

Jack laughed in a way to suggest she was talking to an idiot. "I did see a little of what you could do. Flying through walls, creating ice, and disappearing. And those are just what I know about. If you wanted to, you could take any frigate in existence and take control of the galaxy. I would help." Jack's suggestions reminded Danny of the brief experience he had of his alternate future.

"No. I won't be thinking of it. At all."

"So the ghost has morals. Who'd have thought of it." She glanced back at the data pad in her hands. "I don't care what you think, but don't get in my way."

"What's up with you and killing?"

"The way I figure it, every time one of my enemies dies, my chances of survival goes up." The convict looked up from the screen and said, "But now I may have to just settle for feeling better for taking them out of the galaxy." Danny didn't want to risk Jack going nuts and blasting a whole in the hull, so he left her to the data and flew back to his room.


	4. Chapter 4

I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR MASS EFFECT

Danny Fenton was woken by his ghost sense. Years of battling had his body transitioning to either jump into a fight, or run for a place to go ghost in secrecy while his mind was quickly transitioning from sleeping to the wit needed to survive ghost attacks for years. The hybrid was turning his head, searching the room for anyone, be it the ghost or any human. But the world was devoid of any light.

"How horribly slow. I could've attacked by now." A voice called in the darkness. The voice was enough for Danny to automatically go ghost. Fenton turned as the transformative rings bathed the room in light, but Danny was only focused on the ghost floating in front of him. Vlad Plasmius. The younger ghost didn't care to come up with a strategy and just tackled the older ghost. "You're twenty years old, I would have thought you grew more mature in the years since we've last fought, son."

"Don't you DARE call me son!" Danny yelled, allowing his hands to glow green with energy as he threw wild punches at the elder hybrid, though Vlad easily deflected each blow. "You killed the only people who had the right to call me son!" Vlad backhanded Danny, sending him into the ceiling.

"You're mistaken, Daniel. I wasn't the one who unleashed his most powerful attack on them." Vlad was floating over the teen, looking at his hand nonchalantly.

"I was trying to protect them! Protect them from YOU!" Phantom pulled his energy into his hand and forced it at Plasmius. Vlad simply put his hand out to project a mirror-like construct that sent the energy away from them.

"You may have saw it that way, but how do you think they saw it?"

"They-" Danny paused, actually thinking of what they went through in their last moments, until he realized that Plasmius was just messing with his head. Danny flew around the room to gain speed, until he turned to use the momentum on Vlad. But Plasmius stopped Phantom's advancement by grasping his hands. "They knew I would never hurt them!"

"Really? Did your parents know that their 'precious' son was also one of the things they hated most in the world? Your friends, sister and that useless clone may have known you were trying to help, but did they fare any better?"

"I-It was your fault!"

"We could argue like this all day and get no where. We need an impartial third party." Plasmius turned his attention to the lightless room and asked, "What do you think?" Before Danny could turn to face what he assumed was one of Vlad's duplicates, he felt sharp pain at every side. The white-haired ghost collapsed on the ground and was threatened with losing consciousness as the pain increased with the tick of a clock. He forced his eyes and a charged hand to face the direction one of the attacks was coming from, only to find that it was his mother. Danny jumped back and saw that the other people attacking him were the rest of his family and his best friends. They moved the ghost weapons onto his form, which forced the hero to react by pulling up a ecto-shield. But he wasn't expecting the kick to the back. He looked around to see Dani, with her hands glowing green, and the rest of them approached. Before the hybrid could phase through the ground, someone trapped him in a ghost proof net. As they got closer, Danny noticed that each one of them looked five years older then when he lost them. Everyone he cared for leveled their weapons at Danny.

"No!" Danny yelled, trying to pull away from them. He grunted in pain as he landed hard on the ground. The hybrid looked around to see that he was still on the Normandy. Looking down, he saw that he was still Fenton. He pulled his wallet from his pocket and retrieved the picture that was taken at his birthday, after he and Sam got together, which one could see by the kiss he planted on her cheek. The picture blurred as tears filled his eyes. This wasn't the first time he had that nightmare, but it was all too real, no matter how many times he was subjected to it. After the pain dulled to a level where he could think again, he remembered something important. His parents were the most honest and kindest people he had ever known, but they had devoted themselves to hunting ghosts, believing it was the right thing. His thoughts moved onto his new teammates. Mostly to the woman who was loyal to the human-centric organization, he realized she could believe Cerberus was doing what was right, and he swore that he would at least give her the chance to explain her views. The hero transformed to his ghost half and flew out of the room. But as he was floating to Miranda's office, Danny noticed the area was devoid of any activity. Turns out he woke up while everyone else was asleep. The hybrid realized that he couldn't get back to sleep and, after asking EDI to alert Lawson that he wanted to talk, decided to look more around. He had just phased through the ceiling to find himself in some kind of closed box in Mordin's lab. The ghost nearly blasted the bug, but EDI told him Miranda was up and ready for Danny.

"You asked to speak with me?" She asked as Danny phased into the room.

"How did you get involved with a group like Cerberus?" Danny decided to come right out with it.

"The Illusive Man was associated with my father. He took me in when I ran from my Father." The Cerberus operative didn't know what came over the ghost, but she knew this could be her best chance of turning him to Cerberus. Or at the very least, keep him from destroying Cerberus first chance he had.

"Why did you run?"

"My father wasn't looking for a daughter. He was looking for a legacy. He had to control everything in my life, my biotics, my intelligence, even my DNA." She noted as the ghost clenched his teeth, and eyes lit up as she described what happened.

"Phantom, report to the CIC. I think you'd like to hear this." Shepard called over the intercom before Danny could continue the questioning. Seconds later, Danny was in the aforementioned room. Shepard motioned him closer to the console where Kelly was standing. "Play the message." The psychologist pressed a button on the console, resulting in a voice coming on over the speakers.

"S.O.S. Someone please help! There's..something flying through the walls and making things float. We don't know how much longer-"

"Here he comes!" A second voice called out, followed shortly by screams and static.

"When was this message sent? From where?!" Danny asked, fearing he was too late.

"It's stamped for about two minutes ago, from a small company on Eden Prime."

"When will we be there?"

"Two minutes." Shepard told him. The hybrid went back to his room to retrieve the thermos he had on him when he entered the Zone to capture Vlad. The hybrid flew to the Kodiak, where he was waiting for the bump that came with using the mass relays. While waiting, Danny recalled everything he was told about Eden Prime. Apparently, when Shepard and the original crew first joined together, Eden Prime was where the commander had started with his role with the Reapers. Thanks, in no small part to an ancient alien device called a Beacon, which transmitted knowledge directly to Saren, a rogue Spectre, and Shepard. Also, the Council, the group that governed Citadel space, was less than enthusiastic about Shepard's involvement with Cerberus and promised to reinstate his Spectre status under the condition that he limited his activities to the Terminus system. The bumps made Danny return to reality, to see everyone was joining him in the Kodiak.

"What's everyone doing here?"

"You didn't think we were letting you go down alone, did you." Shepard asked.

"No choice. It's too dangerous." Danny responded.

"It's too dangerous for us to join you, but not you to go it alone?"

"I've been fighting ghosts for close to seven years. Meanwhile, you guys didn't even know ghosts existed before Omega."

"We don't have to fight any ghosts, the rest of us will be on hostage rescue."

"But-"

"It isn't up for debate." Shepard said as he and the rest of the squad entered the ship.

"Fine. But you do what I say, when I say it. Got it?" Danny said, sitting down. Some were reluctant of the idea that Phantom would lead, but everyone recognized he was the only one with the experience and agreed.

"What should we expect?" Garrus asked once the Kodiak closed and Shepard manned the controls.

"Well, you guys already know about the basic powers."

"You said that some ghosts have abilities unique to them. Any idea what attacks this one will have?" Lawson asked. Danny began mentally running what he knew about the ghost from the transmission and the ones he fought before. The person on the transmission warned of 'him' coming, meaning it wasn't a formless or female ghost. Also, the people in the transmission sounded like adults, eliminating Young Blood. But, other than that, he didn't know who to expect, which he relayed to the others. The doors opened to see a small base that held no distinctive markings and as they left the smaller ship, a wisp of cold air passed through Danny's lips.

"Ghost sense. One of my powers." The hybrid explained at the crews blank faces. The group moved forward, to find the door was left open, which allowed the squad forward. After a few minutes, a few humanoid mechs came out of nowhere and opened fire.

Phantom jumped forward to protect a shield, but when he looked back, he saw that they were hiding behind a few bookcases and a couch. Danny dropped the shield and became invisible. The robots scanned the room, before turning to the others. Danny reappeared further away, but before he could blast the robots, the squad dispatched a majority of the robots, some of which laid dormant near the ceiling. Phantom ignored the quick demise of the robots and they continued forward. When they came to a fork in the hall, Shepard suggested splitting up so that they could cover more ground and increase the chances of finding the hostages. The hybrid weighed the options mentally. On one hand, he knew they couldn't hold their own against a ghost. But then again, he made a point and it might help the hostages, even if only as a distraction. "Alright. But even one sign of the ghost, and you call me. Got it?"

"Got it." Shepard and all the others took off in the other direction. Phantom entertained the idea of creating an invisible duplicate to follow them, but quickly shot it down, fearing that they would discover one of his hidden powers.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

After parting with Phantom, Shepard's group followed the buildings twists, where the Commander noticed a strange absence of, well, anything. Before long, a group of LOKI mechs attacked, which took very little effort to eliminate, allowing the squad to push ahead.

Following a few minutes of silence, they found a single, locked door. After bypassing and opening the door, they were greeted by the hostages, who jumped up from a wide desk, most likely expecting the ghost that had been haunting them. The hostages released the hold on their weapons as soon as they saw the ones behind the door were not like the ghost that had been haunting them. They were about to lead the group away, when a laugh echoed through the room. The hostages leapt back behind the desk, awaiting the appearance of the ghost. The ground squad followed the sound to find the ghost they were called for. A man was floating over the door. Like Phantom, this ghost wouldn't appear threatening if he weren't doing things that shouldn't be possible. But, unlike Phantom, this one couldn't blend in if he wanted, as he had a blue complexion that was similar to an asari's. The ghost was also short and clad in a pair of overalls and a toboggan cap. He put his hands out, making the computer equipment float over head. The blue-skinned enemy sent it at them, which they were barely able to dodge.

"Jack, Miranda, Jacob. Hit him with biotic attacks."

"On it." Miranda replied, before the biotic group took on a blue hue and aimed their powers overhead.

"Mordin, see what you can find out about this ghost."

"My pleasure." The Salarian Professor pulled up his omni-tool to scan the ghost.

"Garrus. You, Grunt and I will shoot down whatever he sends our way." Grunt responded with a feral smile as the three pulled out their individual assault riffles. "Phantom," Shepard called over his omni-tool. "We found the ghost."

"What?! Okay, I'm on my way. Can you describe him?"

"Beware!" The ghost bellowed before Shepard could describe him.

"Oh, no." Danny groaned, before hanging up. Meanwhile, the ghost sent more of the equipment at them. The gun part of the squad tore through the medium sized box, causing the metal inside to rain over them. The destruction of one of its weapons seemed to anger the ghost, as he levitated all the items in the room, along with some that came through the door. The boxes dropped to the ground as the ghost became intangible to avoid the biotic attack. But he brought his hands back up to prepare for another attack. The team avoided the equipment, but every time they did, the floating items would just take on more and more erratic flight patterns. Too many things were roaming for the team to aim at anything. Before long, the makeshift weapons were pinning them to the center of the desk.

The ghost laughed mockingly, then said, "You cannot hope to defeat me. For I am the mighty–"

"Box Ghost!" Phantom appeared out of one wall. The white-haired ghost stood in a stern stance, with arms crossed. But what surprised the team was the look he had. Phantom's expression was one of boredom.

"Did he just say 'box ghost'?" Garrus asked, disbelief evident in his voice. Now that Shepard thought about it, he realized that everything the ghost sent at them were in boxes.

"We both know what will happen next." Phantom said, pulling a metal cylinder from his belt. "But whether you go with injuries or not is up to you."

The blue ghost, now identified as the box ghost, flew at the walls opposite the white-haired man. But not before turning to the living on the ground and saying, "Beware!" With very little enthusiasm, Phantom aimed the end of the device at the box ghost and released a blue beam of light. "I'll be back!" The ghost yelled as it was pulled into the cylinder.

"Unfortunately." Danny said. He saw the looks of fear on the people that had been stuck there. But he also saw his teammates had been having trouble with the ghost. The hero barely held a smile before flying through the ceiling.

After leaving the crew, Danny allowed his laughter to begin. In fact, he was so busy laughing, he didn't think about where on the Normandy he was flying, until he landed behind Joker. At which point, the hybrid's laughter escalated to the point where he was having trouble standing.

Joker watched as the ghost laughed hysterically. He figured the ghost would have been grabbing his sides if he were alive. "What's so funny?"

"The crew couldn't...handle the...Box Ghost." Danny managed to get out between laughter.

"Who's the box ghost?" Joker asked, not sure he understood the joke.

"His only unique power is control over boxes." Danny explained, while wiping a tear from his eye. "He's literally the lamest ghost in the entire Zone."

"Just because I am in this cylindrical container does not mean that I do not have feelings." A voice sounded from nowhere.

"Forgot about you." Danny said, receiving a metallic thermos from his belt.

"How dare you forget about–" the voice started speaking from the thermos, before being muted as Danny pressed a button on the side.

Joker didn't know whether to laugh or worry about the news. Hoping Phantom was lying, Moreau opened communications with the ground squad. "Did you really just got beat by a guy whose only power was to control boxes?" Joker asked.

"It was a ghost." Jacob defended. "Our attacks went right through him, literally." Danny's laughter was reignited by the incredulous expression on Joker's face. 'Worry. Definitely worry.' The pilot thought.

"I swear I'll f€*+king kill you, Phantom." Jack threatened.

"I'll let you think about what you just said for a minute." Danny responded with a straight face. After a minute of silence, Phantom broke into laughter. Which died down before the squad stepped out of the elevator.

"What was that device?" Miranda asked.

"Simple. It's a ghost catching device called a Fenton Thermos." Danny said, holding the silver and green device.

"How'd you get your hands on that?" Shepard asked.

"From a ghost hunting couple." Danny said, which, technically wasn't a lie. Only he was talking about the original one, not the one he had in his hands. He had added the mute button in the newer design, along with a few additional features.

"Fascinating. Would like to study. Perhaps better equip us all for potential future ghost attacks." Mordin stretched his hand out to touch the thermos.

Danny snatched the new thermos from its position, earning strange looks from his teammates. "The person who gave it to me warned that it was designed to self-destruct if someone tried to take it apart." Again, a lie. He still wasn't sure if he could trust the team and didn't know if he could allow them a way to capture him once the mission was over. "The Fenton's taught me how to build their technology." Believe it or not, that was actually the truth. He was thinking of keeping all ghost hunting related issues away from them until he knew who to trust, but after seeing how poorly they fought against the weakest ghost in the zone, Danny knew he couldn't let them go on without weapons. "All I need is ectoranium."

"Don't believe I've ever heard of ectoranium." Mordin said.

"Ectoranium is an anti-ghost material, and key part of the Fenton's ghost weapons." Looking at their faces, Danny remembered that they haven't seen any ghosts before he came along. Ergo, they didn't know what it looked like. "It's a glowing green rock that hurts ghosts on contact."

"There are no known elements that match that description." EDI said.

"There isn't?" That confused the teen, as Fenton Industries relied heavily on the element and wasn't a secret. Deciding it wasn't important for the moment, he turned his gaze to the blue orb that represented the ship's AI. "I guess I could write a tracking algorithm, but I would need to input the information once I got done."

"Access to the AI core lies past the medical bay." Danny flew to his room and began writing the program. Fortunately, he had already designed the program while running Fenton Industries, so he just had to repeat it. Before Danny could finish it, he was called to Mordin's lab, where he was told of their mission to Horizon.

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	5. Chapter 5

I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR MASS EFFECT

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The Normandy had left the Mass Relay and the ground squad was riding the Kodiak planet-side, to rescue the colonists of Horizon. The lives of innocents depended on their success, which could only be increased by having more people to assist. Unfortunately, Mordin had only been able to fabricate three anti-swarm implements. The people that currently occupied the drop ship were Commander Shepard, Miranda Lawson, Garrus Vakarian, and Danny Phantom. The only reason they had been able to add the fourth member was because the ghost was not visible to the seekers. Danny had been told what the Collectors, and ultimately the Reapers, were planning. But that didn't stop him from feeling a rising tide of nausea.

"I'll go ahead and rescue the colonists from the Collector ship." Danny said as they landed, pointing to the massive ship in the distance, hoping to get out of killing.

"No. The Collector's may not know of you, but suddenly losing some of their prisoners may cause the Collectors to panic and leave. It'd be better if you wait until we figure out a way to cripple them." Shepard told him. And as much as Danny wanted to argue that it'd be better for him to go forward, he knew Shepard was right. After a few moments of following the hill, they saw humanoid insects with four, glowing-yellow eyes move around the area ahead of them. The team were seeing the Collectors in the flesh for the first time. 'Do not think about it.' Danny silently chanted, coming out of it only when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Shepard pointed to the sky, where he saw more collectors coming from the air. He motioned for the other teammates to go to the walls, while he signaled for what Danny guessed to mean fly above them. The hybrid did as instructed and took off from his cover, causing the aliens who flew to follow. The ground-bound Collectors followed Phantom with their guns, giving the crew a chance to open fire on the remaining aliens.

"Come on, Roaches, try to keep up." Danny taunted. He stifled a scream as a laser ripped through his shoulder. While dodging his enemies' laser's the ghost twisted to face the Collectors and aimed energy blasts at them. He was able to blast through two of them, but was so surprised of the beings instant cremation, the other three were able to get a few shots at him. Luckily, he had been able to recover before he took on too much damage and charged up more energy blasts. This time, they were expecting the attacks and had been able to dodge the blasts coming their way. Danny didn't want to reveal too much of what he could do to the enemy on the first battle and aimed back to the ground. The ghost easily swerved through the air to avoid the lasers at him and managed able to get between two Collectors and created holes in their chests as they passed.

"How are you handling things on your end?" Shepard asked over the omni-took.

"Can't I ever find a time zone where I'm the only one in the air?" Danny responded, flying faster towards the ground. The young halfa turned around to take another blast at the alien. After several more tries, Danny had finally destroyed the Collector. Phantom had just barely stopped in time to stop from hitting the ground. 'Like a video game.' Danny thought as he looked at the ashes from defeated Collectors.

With all the hostile aliens down, they continued to a flight of stair and another hill to the settlement. As they were moving, Joker called them over the Normandy and through the static, relayed that he was receiving interference.

"Prepare for another fight," Shepard instructed, pulling the assault riffle off his back. Danny looked forward to see more Collectors flying their way.

"Cake." The hybrid rocketed at the Collectors, fists glowing green with energy. They both aimed their weapons at him, preparing to fire. The hybrid let a smile make its way onto his face, before unleashing a powerful ghost ray at the Collectors, using both hands to offset the twin aliens attacks. The lasers crossed paths, illuminating the immediate area with the warring colors of white and green. The alien weapons proved to be weaker as the thinner beams were consumed by the ghost beam, knocking both aliens against the wall, where Danny formed two ice swords to plunge through the aliens throats, leaving the ashes as the only reminder tag Collectors had even been there. "Winner. Danny Phantom!" The young ghost yelled, holding his arms in the air. The hybrid lowered his arms and was about to turn, only to see a robotic form covered in skin. Before he could blast it, a loud bang went off, sending remnants of the creature all over the ground. With the area clear of enemies, Danny turned to see Shepard had turned a shotgun on the creature. "I've fought against ghosts, dragons, sea monsters, aliens, robots, and now I have to deal with zombies. What's next? A Terminator?"

"A what?" Garrus asked.

"You never heard of a Terminator?" Danny yelled in surprise before he realized something. "Right, alien from the future. It's a movie monster."

"That wasn't a zombie. It was a husk." Miranda clarified as they continued to a corner.

"A husk? Please tell me they don't turn people into husks by biting." Danny seriously asked.

"No." Shepard answered.

"Phew." Danny wiped imaginary sweat from his eyebrow.

"They impale people's bodies on long, pointed poles." He finished.

"Is it fun to mess with the ghost?" They came to another husk as they turned the corner, this one was down. Despite being told they weren't zombies, Danny couldn't help but use his finger to blast a hole through the creatures brain. The commander looked down at the downed creature.

"These aren't the same things I fought on Eden Prime. They're more advanced. Evolved."

"They still die if you shoot them." Garrus said.

"Just make sure to take out the brain."

"They're not zombies." Miranda repeated.

"Guys." Shepard called their attention. "Collector ship." With that, they ignored the creature and pushed ahead. They left that part of the colony and entered what could be best described as a neighborhood. 'This place was supposed to be where people could raise their families, and here these...things left it empty and quiet. Like a graveyard.' Danny thought, his resolve to stop the creatures instantly skyrocketing. The crew members knew what Phantom was thinking as they noticed the way his fists clenched at his surroundings. The team came up on a porch and continued under a stairwell, then inside another building, the one opposite them.

"Don't tell me I'm the only one who's got a bad feeling about this." Danny said as the crew opened the door to the outside. Before anyone could say anything, a group of Collectors came flying. "That's it?" He charged his hands with ecto-energy.

"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL." One of the Collectors said, it's armor breaking into a patchwork of light. Danny, not caring for the light show, flew directly at the alien. Without warning, the enemy sent out a wave of blue, instantly throwing him against the wall that Shepard was using as cover while he sniped a different enemy.

"Say nothing." Danny said, pushing himself up before flying back at the Collector. The hybrid preformed a barrel roll to dodge another biotic attack, and followed up with another beam of green. The alien stumbled back, but otherwise shown no other damage. The hybrid slid to a stop to deliver another ectoblast to Harbinger's face. The collector was sent flying and landed on the ground with a loud thud. It got back on its feet, aiming its gun at Phantom. Before the alien could pull the trigger, Danny disappeared, causing Harbinger to pause and scan it's surroundings. "One shall rise.." Danny's disembodied voice came from nowhere, further confusing the alien, "And one shall fall." The halfa said, thrusting a sword through Harbinger's chest, which instantly collapsed to the ground in a pile of ash.

"Epic Win." Danny crossed his arms to bask in his victory. Unfortunately, he didn't see the shockwave coming his way.

"Epic fail." Shepard said from the cover he took against the hostile.

"Why didn't you guys tell me we would run into a scagdead?!" Upon seeing his human crew mate's confused expression, Danny sighed. "If were gonna be hanging out, you guys have to learn about my time's stuff."

"Scoped and dropped!" Garrus relayed over the intercom as he saw the creature go down. The ghost hero peeked over the wall to see only one drone standing.

"YOU ARE SHORTSIGHTED."

"Didn't hurt when my teachers said it, hurts even less when you say it." Phantom rocketed at Harbinger. The alien fired a warp, only for Danny to disappear again. Unlike last time, Danny didn't reappear. This time, the alien started glowing the tell-tale blue biotic aura, which was soon replaced by the green energy the team had already learned to associate with the ghost. The two colors flickered between themselves, growing more rapid with every passing second. The body exploded, sending the ghost through a window of one building. Shepard sent Miranda to investigate once they saw the bluish-white light pass through the window.

"Phantom?" Miranda called as she was coming through the door, shaking the young halfbreed out of the shock of having been transformed. With the footsteps getting closer, Danny was forced to jump under the bed to go ghost. "What was that light just now?"

"Ghosts are largely energy," Phantom flew through the door, making sure to keep his voice steady. "When one loses too much, we have to pull our focus back to return to our previous state. The energy leaving or returning often results in a light." Danny lied as they regrouped with Garrus and Shepard, who were about to enter a doorway. Once they passed, the sound of a nail hitting the ground rang through the quiet room. Danny and Shepard exchanged glances, knowing what the other had in mind. The crew drew out their weapons and aimed at the edge of the equipment the sound came from while Danny flew straight to the other side. Slowly, a middle-aged man came walking out, a glowing finger pointed at his head. Seeing no threat, the entire ground team lowered their respective weapons.

"Who are you?" Shepard asked.

"Better question: What are you doing here?" Danny added before the man could answer.

"Name's Delan. I came here to fix communications the main grid fell. But then the screaming started. I locked myself in here, but then you four had to lead them to me.

"You had to hear the Collectors trying to get in." Shepard pointed out.

"Collectors? You mean they're real? I thought they were just propaganda to keep us in council space." He stopped when a thought occurred to him. "No! They have Lilith." Danny felt some sympathy for the man, but then he continued talking. "It's all the Alliance's fault. Nothing like this happened in years, then the Alliance installs a GARDIAN laser. If that wasn't enough, they had to send Williams."

"Ashley Williams?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah." Danny remembered hearing that name before, from the crew's recollection of their search for Saren, but that was closer to a debriefing one would give the higher ups instead of retelling. In person, Danny could tell something from the way the Commander perked up at the name of the woman. That the Commander felt close to her.

"How about briefing the New Guy on what a GARDIAN laser is?" Danny said, earning an incredulous look from the mechanic.

"An anti-spacecraft weapon." Garrus replied.

That means you can go ahead and board." Shepard said.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Danny took off, literally flying through the door.

"He just–How did?-"

I think it'd be better if you stayed behind."

"Y-yeah. That's probably a good idea. I think I need to lay down, after you guys leave." Delan shook his head while pulling up his omni-tool.

"Sometimes, I think that kid likes to make people stare like idiots." Garrus chuckled. The image of a powerful being like him conspiring to surprise people by showing his abilities brought a laugh out of the commander, even a small smile from Miranda. They found an antenna in the center, where the interference was light enough to call up to the Normandy.

"Phantom," Shepard called over the comms, "we found a way to activate the laser, but it will take some time."

"I'm not turning back while I'm this close to the colonists." Danny answered after a loud screech of feedback cleared up.

"On the contrary, with the Collectors focusing on us, this is your best chance at getting them out."

"Already flying as fast as I can." Danny called, smile evident in his voice. The crew took positions to defend the antenna, with Shepard close to the console, a shotgun ready to shoot. Miranda and Garrus were both waiting for the enemies from behind crates on either side of the console. They were able to fight off the advancing enemies with only a few flesh wounds, nothing a few applications of medi-gel couldn't cure. At least, until they were surrounded, with their backs pressed against each other, and a praetorian was advancing on the three.

"Take cover!" Shepard yelled, which was unnecessary as they were already diving behind the closest cover. They were splitting their attention between the oncoming horde of drones, assassins, and husks coming from the sides while using the space of time between the rushes to peek over the top of their cover to attack, sometimes unable to duck down in time to avoid being hit with the particle beam. At times, the only thing keeping them alive was Shepard's geth shield boost, and Garrus drawing the remaining forces away from his teammates. Unfortunately, they were pushing past their limits and just as the crew was turning back to attack the Praetorian, when the crab-like landed, causing the crew to stumble back from the seismic activity. The alien rose up with its biotic barrier returning to full strength, and fired it's twin particle beams at Shepard and Miranda. Miranda did something that surprised the Commander, she pushed him out of the way. She closed her eyes in preparation of her death, but instead of feeling the pain she was expecting, she felt a strange tingling feeling pass through her entire being. She looked back to see Danny's hand on her shoulder.

"The Normandy only allows two dead guys onboard at a time." Danny released his grip on the Cerberus Operative's shoulder.

"Good timing." Shepard said as he moved back to where he and Miranda were taking cover.

"But you should really get back to freeing the colonist's." Miranda reminded, going back to firing on the Praetorian.

"I am." Danny answered without thinking, earning a confused look from all his teammates, though he was still learning how to read a turian's face. "Why don't we hurry up and beat this thing." The hero said before any of his teammates could respond. He placed his glowing blue hands on the ground, resulting on a patch of ice growing from his hand to under the creature, finally catching the Praetorian in a cradle. The creature let out a high-pitched shriek as the ice stabbed through its body, causing the alien to disintegrate into blue energy. It was at that point, the anti-spacecraft weapons began firing on the ship. Seeing the new threat, the Collector ship activated its thrusters.

"No!" Danny yelled, taking off for the alien craft. When he saw the spacecraft take off, Phantom stopped caring hiding his duplication power and told all his copies to stop hiding. The natives of the time watched in wonder as they saw multiple Danny's flying from the ship with a colonist in hand, only to zoom back to the craft at speeds that surprised the crew. He stopped only when the massive spaceship had become a spec in the distance. All the Phantom's landed in the area. The light from rings coming from the Danny's blinded everyone in the vicinity. Once the crew's sight returned, they saw only one Phantom. With the Collector ship gone, the colonists were starting to break free of the paralysis that had been their prisons.

Shepard stepped on the top of a truck cab that allowed the colonist's to see him. "You are all free to return to your homes, but if any of you are feeling any lingering effects, then report to the edge of town and we can have you examined by our doctor." The people began filing out, until the four crew mates were the only ones in the area.

"Shepard?" A voice stopped them before the crew could leave. They followed it to a woman that was walking from behind the cover of a crate. The woman wore a pink and white armor, with her black hair tied up in a bun.

"Ash." The commander responded, a smile finding itself on his face. "It's good to see you."

"After two years and that's all you have to say?" Ashley questioned, "We had something real..I-I loved you."

"Maybe we should see how Mordin's handling the colonists." Danny said, instantly grabbing his teammates and disappearing. He only reappeared once they were a good distance away from Ashley and Shepard.

"You can duplicate yourself?" Garrus asked, causing Danny to grimace, as he had been hoping that between everything that happened, they might forget. Or at least until they were going on another mission and he could delay it. 'Guess it was kinda naïve.' Danny thought glumly as Miranda began lecturing him.

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	6. Chapter 6

**I DON'T OWN MASS EFFECT OR DANNY PHANTOM. **

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'Please work.' Danny silently begged while adding the final pieces to the ghost portal he was building. He wanted to build the large invention in secret, but on a spaceship, it was nearly impossible to get anything other than scrap metal, even with his powers. If the half-ghost didn't reveal the portal could be used to increase the cannon's power after hearing Shepard asking the crew how to improve the ship, it's possible the portal would only be a glorified hole in the wall. 'Here goes nothing.' Danny thought, pressing the button to activate the portal. Green electricity began crackling the inside of the portal, zapping between random spots. Instead of stabilizing and opening a green vortex leading to the ghost zone, the electricity started sparking the console and Danny's room. The hybrid attempted to fly to the console, only for him to be thrown against the wall where the lounge had once been, instantly transforming back to his human half. Seeing the portal's center glow, Danny rushed to the console, only for the invention to explode.

"Simulation Failed." Popped over the hybrid's omni-tool. Phantom marked off that combination of components and pinched his nose in frustration. Almost immediately after getting the data pads, Danny scanned over the contents in hopes of finding technology to build the portal. But he soon discovered that humanity stopped researching and developing ghost technologies not long after he left, forcing the hero to think of some way. After a few weeks of nearly continuous failed simulators, Danny began reading the advancements of the other species. So far, his most promising substitutions came from the Salarians, not that any of the devices created the result he was hoping for. Between constantly searching for a winning combination, fear that Vlad was getting away and the nightmares, which were coming more and more frequently, Danny had gotten very little sleep. Most of the time, staring at the stars in the distance would soothe him. But when things got really bad, he had to rely the picture that he set next to his bed. The hybrid moved onto the next item on the list, when he felt the ship turn wildly. Danny paused the simulator and immediately landed in the CIC, where he saw Shepard was on the podium, talking to Garrus.

"Did Lucy finally get us those dossiers?" Danny asked.

"Lucy?" Garrus asked.

"Yeah. The Illusive Man may sound like a cool name, but it's not one you want to always say."

"We'll be there in about two hours. I want you ready and in the Kodiak by then." The commander said, ignoring the reference to the leader of Cerberus.

"About time." Danny crossed his arms and sunk through the floor, allowing the soldiers to resume the conversation they were having before Phantom appeared.

"Are you sure we can trust him?" Garrus asked as they were walking to the armory.

"I don't know if we can. But Tali is in one of the most dangerous places in the universe and having Phantom along could save her life." That made the Turian go silent as they got their guns and, in Shepard's case, armor.

"I was starting to think you'd miss your own deadline." Danny said, dispelling a game of tic-tac-toe he had drawn in the air with his ectoplasmic energy. "Where are we going now?"

"We're going to a planet called Haestrom, in Geth controlled space."

"Aren't the Geth the sentient robots out to destroy organics? You know, when I asked if we'd fight Terminators, I wasn't serious." Danny joked, earning glares out of his teammates.

"The Geth are dangerous. That's why I asked you here." Shepard said.

"Okay, okay. I'll take it seriously." Danny raised his hands in surrender.

"You better." Shepard threatened. "If something happens to Tali, I will stuff you in that thermos and throw it in the nearest black hole EDI can find." Danny didn't doubt the soldier would keep that promise.

It didn't take much longer before Joker gave the signal that they were closing in on the planet. Once they landed planet side, Danny phased through the hull. "Suffering Spooks! That hurt!" Danny returned a second later, patting the still-smoking material of his jumpsuit.

'Suffering Spooks?' Shepard mused as Danny opened the door, crafting an ice tunnel as they went. The tunnel was able to protect them from the radiation, at least for a few seconds before shattering. They continued to the gate. Since the door was unlocked, they were able to enter to find a setup of computers and a dead Quarian. While Garrus and Shepard were walking to the console, Danny had dropped to his feet and his eyes were fixed on the dead body. Before unlocking the next door, Shepard noticed Phantom was turning over the dead body, revealing the Quarian's bioluminescent eyes. They understood what was happening as Danny's hand phased through the visor, resulting in the lights to disappear. The crew members said nothing as he crossed the deceased marine's arms then bowed his own head.

"We should've gotten here sooner." Danny whispered. His voice was so low, it's possible Shepard only heard thanks to some of the technology Cerberus implanted him with.

"Emergency log entry." The voice of the deceased alien began before Danny got back to his feet. "The Geth are here. I've stayed back to buy the others some time. Anyone who gets this, find Tali'Zorah. She and that data are all that matter. Keelah se'lai." Phantom nodded his head slightly to acknowledge the final request. Garrus pressed the button that opened the door and Phantom created another ice tunnel. As they passed the threshold into the new area, the tunnel got destroyed by weapon fire. Danny thrusted his still glowing hands forward, sending the remaining ice of the construct flying at the Geth. Only two synthetics were still operational from the strike and attempted to get back to their feet. They both went down after two loud cracks of high-powered rifles.

Before Phantom could construct another tunnel, another wave of Geth were pulling up. Shepard leapt over the divider he took cover behind and replaced his sniper rifle with a shotgun while Garrus stuck with his rifle and fired shots from behind the cover they rushed to when the tunnel got destroyed. Danny phased through the ground to protect himself from the radiation and would pull random pieces from the Geth, then return to the ground.

"Drop Ship coming in." Garrus called between shots.

As the Geth vehicle came close, Danny shot through the ground. The drop ship was swinging while some holes began forming in its hull. Bright green and blue lights started flashing. It stopped before hitting the wall and turned. Garrus prepared for a shot before the drop ship opened fire..on the regrouping Geth. It was then that a second drop ship appeared. Phantom's drop ship disappeared, making the second one to stop firing. Only two seconds later, the ship began to spin out of control, right as Phantom's ship reappeared, merged with the other. The merged ship crashed against a wall and fell to the ground.

"Okay, that was kinda fun." Danny said, working his neck around. He stopped when he heard the sound of machine gun fire. Phantom automatically shifted his physical state to intangibility and turned to the sound of gun fire, only to see there weren't any Geth. He jumped from the deformed ship and flew through the wall to the sound. Upon arriving Danny saw two Quarians hiding behind a fallen metal beam. The pair would take small peeks over the edge to fire at the four Geth approaching their shelter, but only succeeded in eliminating one unit. "Three robots, two aliens, and a ghost are caught in a fight?" Phantom pulled all the combatants attention away from their enemies. "I think I heard a joke that started like this. Can you guess the punchline?" The Geth, having recovered from the surprise, aimed their rifles at Phantom. One second, the white-haired ghost was there, but he was gone when the bullets had left the guns. The Quarians blazing eyes went wide at seeing the sudden appearance and even more sudden disappearance of the strange being. "I thought you had him too." Phantom reappeared behind the Geth on the left.

Before the unit could respond to the ghost's relocation, Danny reached his hand through the Geth's head and pulled the flashlight-like optic sensor from its head. Perceiving their ally fall to its knees shook the remaining Geth to fire. Danny jumped back and took to the air, twisting his body in ways that no one should be capable of. He flew overhead and dove in the space between the two robots and stood stationary, with his arms crossed. If the Geth knew more of organic facial expressions, they might have felt cautious of the smirk that had creased the ghosts face. Instead, they didn't hesitate to open fire. Instead of Phantom becoming riddled with bullet holes, the Geth began convulsing as the sound of metal hitting metal sounded through the small room. When it stopped, both remaining units turned to the hero, heads tilted slightly and guns remaining aimed at him. "Are you out of bullets?" Danny said, the smirk growing as his concealed hands took on a neon green glow. "Unfortunately for you, I'm not." The green energies crossed to hit the robots square in the optic sensors. Danny floated to the ground away from the fluid rushing from the Geth bodies. The two Quarians stood from their cover, and immediately aimed their weapons at the ghost. Danny, acting off instinct, threw his hands up to project an ecto-shield. The bullets hit the construct with dull thuds. A loud clank came from behind him, forcing Danny to turn to see a Geth unit reappear and take a step back. The unit collapsed as a second shot blasted the Geth's head apart. Danny looked around to see Garrus coming up with his sniper rifle and Shepard with a shotgun. "Too late guys, you've missed all the action."

"Sorry, but _someone _made a drop ship hit the wall and forced us to find a secondary entrance." That sentence made Danny chuckle nervously and rub the back of his neck.

"That shock was you?" One of the Quarians, a female in a red suit, asked.

"That shockwave brought down enough debris to destroy the Juggernaut and gave us this beam as cover." The other, a male in blue, continued. "We owe you our lives." At hearing how his actions inadvertently saved the aliens, Danny reclaimed the smug smirk he had.

"Great." Shepard shook his head slightly as he and Garrus put their weapons away. "Now he'll be even more big-headed."

"Don't worry." Danny patted the solider's shoulder, "I already knew I was awesome."

"Anyway," the female Quarian began, obviously not knowing what to say about what was going on, "Thank you. I'm Cosu'Mirol, and this is Leel'Sozu."

"I'm Commander Shepard. This is Garrus Vakarian, and Danny Phantom." Danny held up a hand to mimic the peace sign so often used by aliens in the old alien movies. Cosu held one hand up in the universal one second gesture and used her other hand to press the side of her helmet. After a moment of silence, the marine told them to switch to the frequency they were using. Once the team had switched to the mentioned frequency, the squad leader known as Kal'Reegar briefed them on what was going on. Danny could see Geth taking positions against the organics and threw up a ecto-shield to protect all of them. Phantom was too busy keeping the bullets from hitting the living that he didn't risk the small diversion of concentration to create a duplicate when Kal announced an approaching drop ship, resulting in a bean blocking the door. Phantom sent the shield against the Geth. Those that didn't move away, were smashed against the concrete wall. Shepard, Cosu, and Leel moved with the shield and got close enough to use their weapons against the Geth, while Danny was too busy keeping up the ecto-shield to protect them from the bullets and the ice tunnel to keep them all from being burned to a crisp. By the time they got close enough to cover that Danny could go on the offensive, Shepard had just dropped the last Geth unit.

"Couldn't have saved me one?" Danny complained.

"Think of it as payback from earlier." Shepard smirked. Leel looked at the two and switched his attention to the Turian.

"Believe it or not, they're some of the more sane people on the ship." Garrus said.

"I had to move forward a century to be considered sane?" Phantom asked, "Wonder how far forward I'd have to move to be considered a genius?"

"I'll consider you a genius right now if you could figure out how to get us through that door." Cosu said. Phantom cocked his head before phasing through the ground. They all looked at the piece of debris, to see it falling through the ground. Danny returned a few seconds later, hefting the massive structure over his shoulder, as if it weighed nothing.

"Elementary, my dear Watson." Danny said in an exaggerated English accent, before dropping it with a dull thud. They moved through the now accessible door to see a large room. Someone shot a Geth unit that was, somehow, still working enough to turn away from the door it was working on to face the newest arrivals. Danny wasn't paying attention to who pulled the trigger as he was too focused on all the dead aliens that were laying lifeless on the ground.

"Tali'Zorah to base camp. Come in base camp." A holographic image of a Quarian came over the desk close to the door, this one was wearing a purple shawl and gold-colored rings around her neck. "Is anyone there?"

"Tali, it's Shepard." The commander placed a hand on the console. "I'm sorry but the only survivors are Leel'Sozu and Cosu'Mirol."

Tali shifted her hand to press against the glass over her face. "We knew this mission was high-risk, but all this death." She let out a sigh. "Are they there with you?"

"We're here." Leel said as he and Cosu approached the desk.

"Keelah, I'm glad to see you two." Tali said, a sad smile evident in her voice.

"The Geth would've taken us, if it wasn't for Phantom."

"Who?"

"We can make introductions after we leave." Garrus spoke up. "Where are you?"

"Reegar and the other marines have locked me away. I can hear the fighting outside." Tali answered.

"The door's locked. We can't open it from this side." Cosu announced. "Maybe you can fix it on your end?"

"Maybe." Tali said, pressing a few buttons on her omni-tool. "Come on, you bosh'tet." The Quarian muttered until turning back to the squad. "Sorry, but the circuits are fried. Looks like you'll have to find a different path. I'll see what I can do."

"If you can't fix it," Danny said as he approached the malfunctioning door, his fists glowing green, "break it some more." With that, he placed his hands on the door and blasted the door off its tracks. "Honey! I'm home!" Phantom moved his hands in a grand flourish over his head, which was enough to call the attention of the Geth that stood behind the shutters. The young halfa threw a ectoplasmic disk at the unit, causing it to stumble back. The team used that moment to rush through the other door.

"Couldn't you have just phased us through the door? Like Grunt and Mordin on Omega." Garrus asked.

"Yeah, but.." Danny stopped mid-sentence.

"But?" Shepard urged the ghost on.

"That wouldn't have been fun." Phantom squeaked out.

After a long moment of silence, Garrus turned back to the Quarians to say, "Forget what I said. He's crazy."

"It was fun while it lasted." Danny joked in an attempt to get rid of the glare Shepard and Garrus aimed at him. It failed spectacularly.

"Leel? Cosu?" A voice called. They all turned to see a Quarian in red signaling them forward. The Quarian was a male in a red suit and a rocket launcher at his side.

"Good to see you're not dead, Kal."

The Quarian, now identified as Kal'Reegar laughed and responded with, "Me? You two were the ones who volunteered to hold back a squad that had juggernauts and hunters." He looked over, as if this was the first time he noticed the Normandy squad. "And I take it this is the squad that Tali'Zorah spoke highly of?"

"Should we expect any enemy reinforcements?" Shepard asked.

"Initial recon said the Geth had no interest in the planet." Reegar answered, "But we later found they were mining some kind of mineral. Don't know how many there are. One of my men used an overload that destroyed the Geth's short range communications, but you can be sure the Geth will send more units once they realize that they underestimated us."

The Commander weighed the different options set in front of him. Despite Reegar's insistence that he could help, it was obvious that he was injured. And Tali was in danger with the Geth only being held back by the observatory's walls and Reegar's dwindling supply of rockets. If Reegar was right, then they had to get away soon, but if they were to rush the Geth, someone could end up dead. Well, everyone except Phantom. It was then that he realized something, they didn't have to capture the building. They just had to pull Tali out.

"Leel and Cosu help move Kal," Shepard pointed the way they came.

"We won't leave until this mission is over." Kal announced

"That's not what I'm saying. I want you to make sure no Geth try to ambush us on the way out." There was a moment Danny thought he'd have to overshadow the Quarian to get to safety, but the marine was able to hobble away with the others.

"Garrus you and I will take the paths to either side and distract the Geth." Shepard turning to each one as he told them what he planned. "Phantom, you get Tali out here. Once she's safe, we can evacuate."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Tali'Zorah was recording the Sun's radiation levels, trying to keep her mind off how disastrous the mission had become. There were supposed to be no Geth in the vicinity. There were supposed to be fifteen Quarians returning to the Flotilla. Instead, only two hours in and they ran into a few hunters. From then on, they were forced to run from their pursuers. And because of that data, at least eleven families would have to mourn their recent losses. 'Eleven Quarians killed over Suns blowing up!' Tali mentally shouted. She shook her head and started adding the scant information they had retrieved from the Geth into her memory storage. The material was enigmatic as it possessed no known properties that could give the Geth the advantage. Tali was so busy running her mind through what she knew that she didn't hear Shepard telling her what they planned on doing.

"Ready to go?" The white haired creature asked floating outside the confines of the ground. The Quarian jumped behind a desk that stood between the two and pulled the trigger. When nothing happened, she pulled the trigger again and again, until the heat sink popped with an hiss. Before she could duck to reload, something pulled the gun from her gasp and made it float in front of the man. "Is shooting at someone some weird alien greeting?" The man asked, tossing the harmless weapon to the side. "Still, it's better than 'we come in peace'."

"Who are you?" Tali asked, trying to figure out her next move.

"Didn't Shep tell you I was coming?"

"You're with Shepard?" Tali cautiously peeked over the edge of the desk. When she did, she saw him wearing a smile that showed he wasn't afraid. Tali didn't know wether that meant he was stupid, someone to be respected or envied.

"Yeah. My name's Danny Phantom." He said. "Ready to go? Or would you rather wait so these Geth can see my disappearing trick?"

"I need to finish saving the data we collected."

"You want to wait for info? I swear you're just like Jazz." Tali kept switching between the progress bar and Phantom, but she saw when his face changed from a look of certain victory to one of loss. But he shook his head and the cocky smile returned, albeit slightly hollowed. The brief appearance of the sorrow made her wonder if he's so certain of himself because he had nothing left to lose. That one thought made her take a good look at Shepard's squad mate. And made her realize something.

"You're glowing!"

"Thanks. And you have nice legs." Danny joked.

Tali turned her head, unsure of how to handle the stranger, or his response. "You glow like the rocks the Geth found."

"Glowing rocks? Were they glowing green?"

"Y-yes." She blurted out the similarity without thinking it through, but she had no idea that he had information on the minerals. She turned to ask, "What is it?"

"If we're thinking of the same material, then it's called Ectoranium." Danny's eyes widened in realization as a thought came to his mind. Two rings of light appeared on either side of Phantom. The duplicates flew through the walls, an unspoken plan shared between them.

'Keelah, Shepard, where'd you get this guy?' Tali thought.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Not long after Danny phased through the ground to pull Tali to safety, and many of the Geth units lying nonoperational, another one of the Geth drop ships hit flew overhead. The Geth that fell from the vehicle started firing upon the squad. The commander threw a grenade at a group of Geth that were getting close to Garrus and slid next to his friend, but wasn't able to get back down before getting hit by a shot. He had to grit his teeth to not shout in pain while his hands shot to the injury. Pulling his hand back, he was surprised his hand sticky with his own blood. Whatever ammo the Geth were using had sliced right through his armor and struck his skin. Swallowing the pain, Shepard stood and opened fire with his assault rifle. They were in the shadows, behind a wall of concrete, meaning they were safe from the radiation and the Colossus, but the Geth were forcing them to stay behind cover. Shepard poked his head over the cover to see that the colossus' eye had changed from the standard white to green. Neither Garrus nor Shepard understood what was happening, but they didn't question the instincts that told them to move. The wall they had just been sitting behind was completely obliterated.

"Just what we need, a more powerful Colossus." The colossus was using its new firepower to blast apart whatever structures the two hid behind, keeping the on two on the move. Garrus fired a shot directly at the Geth's head, forcing it to huddle for repairs. The two took that chance to take down as many of the synthetics as they could. But they knew they couldn't handle the upgraded pulse cannon. "Phantom, did you get Tali out yet?" Shepard called over the radio. Instead of receiving an answer, Phantom appeared in front of them with an ecto-shield in place, blocking the Geth's attack. Danny flew up into the air and dived. The Colossus fired a pulse, which overtook the hybrid's ectoplasmic blast knocking Danny back. Phantom was surrounded by light and disappeared. The Geth, believing it was a trick began scanning the area for the halfa. But it was caught off guard as another Danny Phantom jumped on it. The Geth tried to turn its head to fire at the ghost. When it discovered the ghost was at an angle it couldn't fire, it began bucking.

"Yippee Kai Yay!" Danny yelled, placing his hands through the Geth's armor. It didn't take long before it began trying to smash him into the wall. "As fun as this is, I think it's time to call it a night." And with that, he flew through the armor. The Colossus began convulsing. It crashed to the ground. A second later, a green light was moving down the Colossus' armor. By the time the piece of armor had fallen and Phantom had crawled out, a different Phantom was walking out of the room with Tali, whose glowing eyes were darting from the fallen Geth, which looked undamaged save the square that was obviously cut by the green flame at the end of the white haired man's hand to his doppelgänger that stood to her side. Overall, the confused expression drew sympathy from the Quarian's two alien friends. "You know, I could use some help getting the ecoranium." Danny gestured to the fallen Colossus.

"Done showing off? But Tali didn't get to see you yet." Shepard joked

"I still like showing off, but nothing says I can't save it for later."

"Why can't you do it? Is it not fun enough for you?" Garrus crossed his arms.

"The two marines want the _ghost_ to carry the material with _anti-ghost_properties." Danny said, placing emphasis on the words to let them know why he couldn't pick up the material.

"And we need this rock, why?" Garrus crossed his arms and gestured to the Geth, not taking his glare off Phantom.

"I'm sorry, but which one of us got their butts handed to them by the box ghost?" Danny returned the glare and even made his eyes shine, or as some took to calling his 'scary eyes'.

"Well, you're gonna need to make that hole larger." Garrus pointed to the hole.

"Or I can get it." Tali said, once she got over the shock seeing Danny's eyes suddenly begin glowing. "Besides, pulling the 'ectoranium'?" Danny nodded that she got the right name, "might damage it." She was able to fit through the hole, and a few seconds later, she came out with a small rock of ectoranium.

"That little thing caused that kind of damage?" Shepard asked as Tali handed him the rock.

"If you know how to use it, then it's very powerful." Danny said, making sure to keep away from the thing that looked harmless but could-Kill him? End him? Danny shook his head to keep his mind off his contradictory condition of half living and dead.

"We could add it to the forward cannons and really hit those Collectors the next time we see them." Garrus suggested.

"It may be better to stick with ectoplasm."

"Why?" Shepard asked.

"It's not easy to make a weapon out of ectoranium." Danny answered, pausing when a thought occurred to him. "First off, it has to be cut specific to what it's designed for. Also, there are only a handful of frequencies that will not destroy the ectoranium, and of them, only a few can hurt a ghost."

"Couldn't they have discovered it by themselves?" Garrus asked, understanding what the white haired ghost.

"The frequencies that takes advantage of the anti-ghost properties aren't easily accessible." Danny immediately thought of Vlad, but then realized the older halfa wouldn't have anything to gain by giving away the secrets of ghost hunting. But if not him then who?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Hope you enjoyed the latest installment of **Specter &amp; Spectre**.


	7. Chapter 7

A while back, I got kinda tired of this story and wrote an early end. I reread it later and realized it didn't feel right. So after an extended break, I'm back.

I don't own Danny Phantom or Mass Effect

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A single hand shout out of the warm haven that Danny had swathed himself in, blindly searching for the alarm clock. After a minute, Danny released his hold on the covers and looked for the soon-to-be-piece-of-rubble. As he did, memories came rushing back to him. Of course EDI had to wake him up early on one of the nights he was actually sleeping well. He idly wondered if the AI was monitoring his sleep and was secretly a troll. Wouldn't be the first non-human troll he met.

"What is it EDI?" Danny asked, uncaring if she registered the irritation in his voice.

"Miss Lawson has requested your presence in her quarters." EDI answered, causing the halfa to blink in confusion. Though Danny stopped glaring at Miranda, he was still a long way from considering her a friend. And when it comes to missions, he's normally briefed in either the briefing room or in the Kodiak as they're leaving. This left him wondering what the Agent had in mind.

"I'm on my way." Danny answered, the rings of light already mostly done with his body. As his head cleared the threshold into Miranda's room, Danny saw Shepherd and Miranda waiting for the ghost. "The Cheerleader and The Quarterback called me to meet them?" Danny announced himself, "This better not end with me shoved in a locker." Shepherd looked unimpressed, while Miranda aimed a low-level glare at the halfa. Instead of responding in an expected method, Shepherd nodded to Miranda. The Agent pressed a hand against her head, her free hand reaching for a small cup sitting on the desk. The halfa didn't need to smell the glass' contents to know it was alcohol. Now that, was one of the responses he was used to.

"I need help. And as much I loathe asking for help, I might need your abilities."

"What do you need?" Danny asked, no sign of his joking persona present. This was a surprise to both humans present.

"After I learned that my Father only wanted me as a dynasty, I left."

"And now he's coming back to try and take you back." Danny picked up.

"No. He knows not to come after me. I have a sister, a twin, and he's after her."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go rescue her sister. Maybe kick some fruit loop butt." Danny said before phasing through the ground to the Kodiak. Miranda couldn't help but admit surprise at the ghost's expression. He not only agreed to help despite the tension between them, but went on to show he was impatient to get planet side. Meanwhile, Shepherd felt a twinge of curiosity for what the ghost would do to fill the hour they had before arriving on Illium.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When the ground squad actually made it to the dock, they came face to face with an Asari. The alien was flanked by two gun-wielding LOKI mechs. The fact that the mechs were walking with weapons at rest was the only reason why Danny had not gone on the offensive yet. Though the hybrid did place his hands on both of his teammates, ready to make them all disappear if the alien became hostile. This proved unnecessary as the Asari left after informing them that a member of the first Normandy, Liara T'soni, had taken care of the docking fees and papers.

With the potential threats gone, Danny scanned his surroundings. The trio were in a long hallway with a few windows, revealing a sprawling city. Following the path, the trio found themselves on a balcony overlooking the alien city. As Phantom felt the wind rushing at him, he felt every molecule in his body screaming at him to take off. Shaking his head to dispel the thoughts, Danny let Miranda lead them to her contact. They soon found themselves in a bar talking to a purple-skinned Asari. The Asari told them that there were Eclipse mercenaries performing a sweep and that Niket, one of the few people Miranda trusted, volunteered to take Oriana and her family the rest of the way. With that information, Miranda suggested a plan to keep her sister safe. The Mercenaries would soon find themselves wishing they picked different occupations.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The Eclipse mercenaries watched the shuttle approach with keen interest. They turned their weapons to the approaching vehicle and opened fire. Only thing was that it showed absolutely no effect. A mercenary signaled for the others to hold fire and walked forward, ready to intercept the woman who he immediately recognized the woman as Miranda Lawson, the one they were to keep an eye out for. "I'm guessing you already know why we're here." Miranda said as she moved forward.

"Yeah, you're here to kidnap the boss' little girl again." The leader answered.

"Kidnap? This doesn't involve you. Now you'd better leave while you still can." Miranda threatened, anger visible to her two teammates.

"Or what? We already have her, and Niket won't be any help to you."

"'Little girl'? You told me it was your twin sister." Shepherd brought up, making Danny's eyes widen as he hadn't noticed the discrepancy.

"It's complicated. We share the same DNA, just not the same birthday."

"A clone." Danny said without conscious thought. His eyes shined in a way that scared the mercenaries, and filled Miranda with dread. Both reactions grew as each of the Phantom duplicates that Danny had sent prior to their landing flew back to the original. The duplicates disappeared in rings of light. Danny took off to hover over the crowd and shot out a wave of green energy. The ones that weren't knocked back by the blast were repeatedly pushed back by more waves of ghostly energy. Before any could get away, Danny froze a solid barrier to block off any escape routes. "What're we waiting for?" Danny asked, shattering the ice as he floated forward.

"I'm sorry. I-." Miranda started.

"Forget about it. Just because she wasn't born like most doesn't mean she deserves to be stuck with a fruit loop." Danny interrupted and flew ahead. Between the three of them, the mercenaries stood no chance and were decimated. It didn't take long for them to make it to where they had Oriana. But just as they got to the elevator brought them to the shuttle bay, Danny's ghost sense went off. The trio opened the door to see two Asari, a human male with close cropped hair and a light skinned woman with short hair.

"Oriana? Are you alright?" Miranda asked, gun pointed at the Asari in the Eclipse armor. Instead of responding, Oriana turned to the hybrid with a feral grin on her face.

"Ghost boy." The woman stated, though the voice was instantly recognizable to the halfa. The two charged at either. Danny flew straight through the woman and came out with a robot with a green, flaming Mohawk and goatee. A duplicate Danny caught the woman and got ready to take off, only to be paused when the man grabbed his wrist.

"Wait!" Niket said, "Do you really want to keep Oriana away from her family? She could've lived happily, but Miranda stole her as a baby." Danny looked at the unconscious woman, thinking on what to do. He tried to imagine how her life would've gone if Mr. Lawson was anything like Vlad. If he was, happy wouldn't be how he would describe her life. Danny shot Niket against the wall, freezing him in the process. Once the clone had stashed the woman, it dispelled to give the original more energy to fight Skulker.

After tackling the ghost, the original Danny had spun the hunter in the air and fired off an ectoplasmic blast. Skulker glared hatefully at the hybrid before returning with a multitude of missiles with ectoplasmic warheads. Danny contorted his body to dodge most of the weapons, and grabbed the last one to deflect it back to Skulker. Skulker produced a shoulder-mounted gun that detonated the explosive in a dark smoke cloud. This cloud was enough to block the blue cryo energy Danny fired off. Skulker automatically used his arms to protect his face. With his arms frozen over his face, Danny raced forward to deliver a devastating punch. This punch was enough to shatter the ice, but it left Skulker's arm in a sparking mess. Phantom attempted to follow up with a kick, only for Skulker to grab it. Skulker spun in a tight circle before throwing him backwards. Danny's automatic intangibility was the only thing keeping him from crashing into neighboring building, though Skulker did meet him on the other end of the building with an overhead slam. At least that was what he was planning until Danny littered Skulker's body with ice spikes. One of the spikes broke the connection between the head and the rest of the body. The body started plummeting to the ground, but was sucked into the thermos before he could hit the ground. With the ghost captured, Danny returned to see the Eclipse mercenary had been killed. Miranda was right in front of Niket, a gun fixed to his temple. Acting off instinct, Danny used his telekinesis to change the trajectory enough to leave a bullet hole only a centimeter from hitting his ear.

"Why'd you do that?" Miranda yelled.

"I can ignore it when you guys shoot at enemies. But I can't ignore you trying to kill an unarmed man." Danny reasoned. He knew she wouldn't shoot him, but he couldn't help but activate his intangibility.

"He tried to take Oriana back to our Father."

"Because he was convinced it was best for her." Danny reasoned. She looked back at Niket, a inkling of doubt appearing on her face, she was quick to wipe it away. "We need to get her out of here before your Father figures out something happened and sends more people."

"He doesn't know." Niket answered, though the ice prevented him from looking Miranda in her eyes. "I knew about the spies in your Father's network and kept the information to myself."

"How about the ghost?" Shepherd asked.

"That was Skulker." Danny informed his teammates, "He sees himself as the ultimate hunter. He would've thought he had it in the bag and continued on the mission on his own."

"So, he's the last loose end."

Danny phased her ammo free from the weapon. "Or we could make him work for us. Just have him contact your father and say she was moved her somewhere else." Danny suggested, phasing the man free from his imprisonment. Miranda readied her biotics, and Danny thought he'd have to move Niket, but was proved wrong when she just threatened that she should never see him again.

"I can't believe Niket betrayed me. You should've let me kill him."

"Maybe. But only a monster could kill someone who was once close to them." The voice he used stopped any arguments.

"Oriana?" Miranda asked as the trio made their way out.

"Vague memories and a headache at worst." Danny answered, leading the team to where he had left her sister. By the time they did, they discovered that Oriana's family had found and revived her. The Cerberus Agent looked at her sister for a few seconds before turning back to docks. "Aren't you going to talk to her?" Danny asked.

"No. She deserves a normal life, and can't do that with me around." Danny knew about the appeal of a normal life. He had wished he never stepped inside the portal more times than he could count. Of course, over the course of his life as Phantom, there was one lesson that stood out. 'Normal is overrated.' Danny thought before overshadowing the Cerberus agent. After forcing Miranda to talk to her sister, Danny took off to enjoy his rare chance to open skies.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Danny returned to the ship, his stress level greatly diminished following his flight. But as he phased through the wall he saw Lawson waiting for him. He was ashamed to admit there was more than a small part of him that wanted to disappear. Especially after taking down powerful enemies such as Pariah Dark and Freakshow with his reality gauntlet. The blue glow surrounding didn't help. Danny decided it better to give her a free hit now instead of waiting for her to come after him. He was just as alive as any other human while asleep. He closed his eyes in preparation for a biotic attack, but froze when he felt something soft and damp press against his cheek. His eyes snapped open to see Miranda had kissed him.

"That's for making me spare Niket and talking to Oriana." Miranda answered, walking away as if nothing happened. Danny blinked dumbly as his hand drifted to where her lips met his skin.

"Wait!" He called without thinking. She looked back and Danny became conscious that he was acting like a little kid. "So what happened after I left your body." Danny started mentally berating himself for the way it came out.

"They were shocked to learn about me. But she adjusted quickly. No surprise. She's as smart as I am." Miranda went on to explain some of Oriana's likes and interests. The look of pride actually made Danny forget about his cheek. She actually cracked a joke about them not sharing a sense of humor, one he probably would've cracked himself. Danny started chuckling.

"Sorry," he apologized, "It's just that most of the time, you have about as much emotion as EDI. It's just weird to see you like this."

"The mission is too important to let personal feelings intefere."

"Yeah, well I've won more fights with emotions than I have keeping them locked away."

"I'll never forget that my sister is safe because of you. If you ever need anything of me, you know where to find me." She started walking away, not giving any aknowledgment to what Danny had said.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Shepherd reached into his pocket to retrieve the data that he acquired. When he first met Phantom, Shepherd had recruited him solely because of the powers the ghost exhibited. But there was still a lot they didn't know about the ghost. He believed Phantom was honest about everything asked him. At least, he was before learning he could create duplicates of himself. So he called Liara and she compiled all the information she could find on the ghost. There wasn't much on Danny, but he did learn some things that made him wonder about the ghost. Mostly regarding his access to ghost gear. Phantom regarded the inventors, The Fenton's, in high regards. And yet, the Fenton's were noted to be very vocal adversaries to Phantom. Right up to their deaths in an ectoplasmic explosion. Shepherd would've guessed that Phantom was the spirit of the youngest of the Fenton's, except that Danny Phantom had appeared while Daniel Fenton was still alive and well. Still, there was to much unknown on both Fenton and Phantom.


	8. Chapter 8

I don't own Danny Phantom or Mass Effect

First off, I appreciate everyone who followed this story. Just recently hit a hundred followers. Secondly, sorry this update took so long, but I've had to deal with school, work, and the ever dreaded writers block (mixed with loss of interest). Honestly, it might've taken weeks or months more, but I wanted to get this chapter out by the time of the newest installment. So without further ado, welcome back to Specter &amp; Spectre.

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Danny was floating near the end of an empty room, one almost large enough to house the Normandy. Toxic green eyes searched the room for any clue as to where his first challenge would appear. But try as he might, all he could see was the oversized window that held the spectators. He could feel the energy in his system build as he waited for the signal that would begin the test. The room filled with a multitude of rings. Most were red, though there were two that were green and yellow.

"Are you ready?" Miranda asked from behind the panes of glass.

"Born ready, Cheerleader."

"The first challenge is to…"

"Fly through the rings as fast as I can, got it." There was a loud beep and Danny rocketed off the ground, creating a shockwave in the process. Miranda watched in amazement as Phantom quickly navigated through the rings. While his speed was incredible, he was taking corners that no living thing should be able to handle. As soon as the half-ghost passed through the last ring, Danny paused to wait for the next challenge.

Miranda had tried arrange the showcase since Phantom's arrival, though he was always reluctant to show the actual limits of his powers, especially to an agent to a 'pro-human' organization. The lack of progress on the ghost portal gave Danny a serious need of some stress relief. It's been almost two weeks since the mission on Illium. Normally, the half ghost would enjoy a short joy flight, but being confined to the ship pretty much killed that off. So when he remembered the demonstration Lawson was talking about, Danny didn't hesitate to take it. The sound of whirling gears announced the presence of mechs, at which point a feral grin grew on Phantom's face. The door on the south wall opened to reveal a single mech, one larger than a normal YMIR mech. Before Danny could charge a ghost ray, a loud beeping resounded through the room.

"Forgot I was heating something up." Phantom joked, the energy in his hands dispersed as he flew to the observation room.

"It seems as though there has been a great quantity of Ectoranium found."

"Where?" He asked, all signs of amusement gone as he peeked over her shoulder. He could tell others were curious as they were also waiting on the answer. Once the coordinates were given, they decided to investigate.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

After a few hours, they arrived at the coordinates. Which was when they discovered two things. First, it appeared to lack any sign of life, including any sign of electricity. Secondly, it was hidden in a minefield of asteroids. It's location made it impossible for the Normandy to reach it and the crew were forced to use the Kodiak. Fortunately, the vessel was easy to find. Not only did the white paint stand out impeccably from the black backdrop. As the drop ship approached the vessel, they could see that it was in shambles, with ice punching holes throughout the metal on one side. Meanwhile, the other side had large dents and a few smaller holes.

"I'm not seeing anywhere to set down." Shepherd announced as he flew the ship closer.

"Than I'll make one." Danny flew through the hull of the Kodiak, though not before he could fix the air mask onto his face. The vessel was only a little larger than most of the asteroids surrounding it, though the metal fragments floating around it told it used to be larger. He'd have thought it had been hit by a few of the asteroids surrounding it, except the walls were jutting out, not in. There were holes scattered throughout the vessel, but that wasn't what surprised to hybrid. What did was the croppings of ice that stabbed through sporadically. Phantom eventually found a large enough hole, which had been blown apart. Once he broke through the ice, he returned to the ship. "I found a docking port not far from here."

"Why are you using a face mask?" Shepherd asked as the three got closer to the derelict ship. Instead of answering, Danny phased through the bottom of the ship and flew to their entry point. He knew that the crew would ask some uncomfortable questions about why a full ghost would need a breathing tool, but he was unable to come up with a decent excuse. He was able to blame his eating and sleeping as habits left over from when he was alive, but realized it might appear odd that he would _need_ an air supply. Phantom flew ahead to give himself more time to think of an excuse, when he saw the interior. There were bodies floating around him, some appearing as if they simply fell asleep in zero gravity, while others were frozen in blocks of ice. He didn't know how long he stood there before he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking over he saw that his teammates had arrived. While Shepherd had donned the helmet he wore the first time they met, Miranda's only alteration was a mask not unlike the one Phantom wore. An orange glow from his wrist alerted him to a message. Looking at it, he was not surprised it was Shepherd asking the same question on the Kodiak.

Most of the first room was near empty, but as he flew further in, Danny took notice of floating weapons suspended close to the human corpses. The weapons looked to be on the same level as the ghost weapons of his time, though it was difficult to tell without opening any of them up. As he went, Danny found doors that had managed to survive depressurization. With the power out, Phantom was forced to phase through the door, where he found a few beds. The floating mattresses and white sheets gave off the impression similar to old school haunting movies. The only sign that the room was ever occupied was a poster that showed an image of a kitten in a tree, with the caption 'hang in there, baby'. Leaving the room, Danny encountered his teammates. The next few rooms were innocent enough; a cafeteria, an infirmary and what appeared to be a common room. But then, the three found what was once an armory. The half-ghost was able to tell what some of them were, but couldn't tell about some others, though he had a feeling of familiarity with the full body suits. There were more than a few rooms with metal slabs, some of which had either red or green fluid on them. Heck one even had a mixture of red and green. After some time they finally stumbled upon something that could clear up what happened here. A computer that stretched from floor to ceiling.

"I'll see if I can find the generators. They might still be good." Danny sent the message before taking off. With his flight, it didn't take long before he found a vault door that put the Fenton armory's to shame. If the power was still on, it'd probably be more secure than Fort Knox.

"Ow!" Danny cried out loud. He blinked in confusion while massaging the sore spot on his head. Whatever this place was, it became obvious it had dealings with ghosts. That complicates things. Danny charged a ghost ray and fired it at the door, only for it to ricochet off and slam him into the wall. With those two powers out, Phantom threw all his might into a punch, the half-ghost gripped his hand and looked at his adversary. For all his effort, the door had gained only a small dent. "This. Means. War." Danny stated, his eye twitching in annoyance.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

While waiting for Phantom to restore the power, Miranda and Shepherd went in search of any clue to what happened. When they were with Phantom, they just skimmed the contents of the room, but they had decided to look around with more detail. Shepherd had returned to the cabin's, hoping for any mention of why they were here. Meanwhile, Miranda returned to one of the examination rooms. The red splotches on the tables were obvious enough, but Lawson found herself scanning the green materials. The material was similar to Phantom, though also different. She had no way of telling how without further testing, so she sent a scan back to her terminal on the Normandy. Wanting to get as much info as she could, Lawson opened a door to her left. Fortunately, the room was accessible door was already damaged from whatever caused the depressurization. Only, instead of another lab, it contained a large glass container attached to a metal box and wires leading to the floor. Shattered glass filled the room. She moved closer to inspect the box, only for the lights to flicker on as her hand moved to detach the cover.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Danny could see the steam forming on his face mask as he took in several breaths. It took a lot, enough to cover his fist with ectoplasm, but one more good punch would grant him access. Danny reeled his fist back, but was stopped when his omni-tool lit up with an orange glow. "An Ecto-Converter?!" Phantom was about to fly back to where she was when a thought occurred to him. 'If she found the generator, than what's behind the vault?' Forcing his fists into the newly formed cracks, Danny used all the strength his ghost form supplied and tore it off the hinges. The half-ghost could feel his eye twitch as he saw that the vault was protecting what the vessel's crew thought most important; white suits.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When Phantom explained who the vessel belonged to and the 'ecto-converter', his team was doubtful, though they quickly changed their minds when the power came back on. Right before they had to destroy the anti-ghost armaments. The three returned to the computer while a Phantom duplicate supplied power for the ship. Lawson quickly decrypted the system. They already knew the vessel was for experimentation and that the GiW were attacked by ghosts, but the system could tell them what they didn't know. The half ghost nearly cheered when he saw an image of the ghost portal and created a duplicate to retrieve parts from it.

"I think I found what they were hoping to accomplish." Miranda typed, a video of a human in white stepping inside an eight by five octagon. The man was in his early twenties with dark hair. The lab coat told them the man was a scientist, most likely looking for the reason why the portal wouldn't work. The man disappeared from view as the octagon filled with green energy. Despite the sound being unable to reach their ears, the crew knew it must hurt, though none knew more than Danny. Phantom could feel the breath catch in his throat when the person stepped out. The hybrid tried to think of a way to hide the existence of half ghosts without creating suspicion, but his mind blanked out. Danny was about to blast the computer to Kingdom Come when something that surprised even Phantom. Instead of reverting back to human as he had, the human disintegrated into a green puddle. There were more videos of people entering the portals, each with disastrous outcomes.

"We got what we came for. Let's go." Danny typed, grabbing both humans to fly them back to the Kodiak. Once they were back on the Kodiak, they all removed their respective breathing apparatus.

"Phantom, about the experiments…" Shepherd started.

"Sickening,"

"Do you think it'd be possible?"

"You mean mixing together living and dead. Yeah…No." Danny hoped that he was convincing as they approached the Normandy. Though there was one thing he didn't understand. Those people didn't survive going through the portal, when the same thing granted him his ghost powers. He would believe it was because of his age, except there was a test subject around the age Vlad was when he got his powers.


End file.
